Flames of Dedication
by bigeandhertv
Summary: Takes place within Season 6.  The Sheffield family has gone out of town for Christmas leaving Niles home alone.  The house catches on fire leaving him trapped inside.  C.C. comes to his rescue and vows to stick with him during his recovery process.
1. Feminine Intuition

_**A/N: Hello hello, my fellow readers and writers. I have a new story to share with you all. Timeline will be during Season 6 right before the The Hanukkah Story. I thought this would be an interesting story to really delve into C.C.'s inner strength and determination. Hope you all like this idea. Please review, it serves as a motivator.**_

Chapter 1 – Feminine Intuition

It was the beginning of December. New York City resembled a winter wonderland as snow glistened on the ground and slowly continued to fall on the twinkling Christmas lights around the city. As pretty as the city was this time of year, however, the Sheffield family had no intention of staying there, for they had rented a beautiful log cabin in the mountains out in the Midwest. Niles, however, had been let off the hook this year; for the cabin was only big enough for the family and maid service was already included.

Niles was quite happy to finally have the Christmas holiday to himself. Of course, he adored the Sheffield family, but he was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to spend Christmas with his parents and brother up in England. He had already booked his flight. He would spend a week by himself at the Sheffield mansion before taking his flight the next week to England. He missed his family a great deal and could not wait to see them. Not to mention a week at the mansion alone should prove quite interesting.

He planned on taking advantage of all the amenities in the house, mainly the hot tub and Maxwell's brandy and cigars.

Of course, as he sat on the couch, alone in the mansion, he couldn't help but let his mind wander to a particular infuriating blonde. The last few months between them had been interesting and as much as he pretended to be happy about the fact that he wouldn't see her for the next month, he knew he was just lying to himself. Everyday just wouldn't be the same without her to throw insults at and catch hers in return. Not to mention, he had no one to be bitter with on the holidays.

He thought very seriously about calling her and inviting her to the mansion. He felt some pity for her as he realized that she wouldn't have anyone to spend the holidays with, for she had no man of her own, her family relationships were strained and the Sheffields were out of town. He thought maybe she would go on a vacation, but he decided that was unlikely considering she hadn't mentioned it to him or Maxwell before. If she was going anywhere, she would of taken the first chance she got to rub it in his face.

_I wonder what Babcock is doing right now…_

…_.._

C.C. sat on the couch in her penthouse apartment, glass of scotch in her hand. She hated this time of year. The cheeriness of it all, the decorations, the lights, the happiness, the carolers, the little snot nosed brats sitting on Santa's lap, all of it. This holiday was just an excuse for people to stop working and be artificially nice to one another and waste money on meaningless gifts. She hated it, and it made her sick to watch the whole city shut down Christmas day.

The truth was, however, her deep rooted Scrooge like hate for Christmas went beyond the surface. The holiday had brought nothing but heartbreak for years in this woman's life. On countless occasions as a child, she would wish for her mother to stop drinking and her father to come home, but as many times as she had sat on Santa's lap at the mall and asked for her father to come home, it was sadly never delivered to her. Her adult years didn't fare well either, for every year she would spend Christmas in her apartment _alone___or out of town, _alone._ Either way it didn't matter, for it still hurt just as much whether she was on the beach or on an ice cap. There was even one year when she was actually dating a guy who she really liked at the time, who actually broke up with her on Christmas. C.C. had legitimate reasons for despising this holiday.

She let her mind wander as she twirled the scotch around in the bottom of cup before quickly dumping it down her gullet. She winced as the scotch burned on the way down her throat. She poured herself another glass before turning on the TV and watching a 48 hours mystery. She dozed off on the couch with the cup of scotch on the table in front of her.

…

Niles was starting to get hungry, so he decided to make a few things in the kitchen. He didn't feel like cooking a big feast, so he just grabbed a few different frozen foods and prepared to heat them. He put a chicken and mashed potatoes TV dinner into the microwave and one hot pocket in the oven. Those were his guilty pleasure frozen food. Since hunger was getting the better of him, it is not surprising that he did not notice that someone had put a fork in the microwave earlier that day.

He left the kitchen for a few minutes in order to catch run upstairs and change into his pajamas. He briskly walked back down the stairs and he immediately smelled a very strange odor. Figuring it was just his food starting to burn, he opened the door to the kitchen and was simultaneously greeted with a massive explosion from the microwave. As if gasoline was poured on everything in sight, the fire massively spread onto the curtains, encasing the walls fairly quickly.

Niles started to panic. Truth is he was deathly afraid of fire, for he had known a kid who died from smoke inhalation from a house fire when he was a child. He looked under the sink and pulled out the fire extinguisher. What he did not realize, however, was that the fire had grown immense in size and even with all the chemicals in the can, there would be no way he could extinguish this. He panicked as he began to feel trapped by the flames. He did all he could think of to do and attempted to throw a bucket of water on the flames encasing him. But as he tried to fill up the bucket, the black smoke cloaked him; he became short of breath and slowly fell to the ground. The flames began to jump around some more and little by little they began to encase his clothing.

…

C.C. awoke with a start. She didn't know what it was, but something felt very wrong and ominous as she sat in her penthouse. She felt as if she needed to be somewhere else. She thought for a minute before having the sudden urge to rush to the Sheffield mansion. She just felt that she needed to be there.

She quickly grabbed her keys and practically sprinted down the stairs. She was still unaware, of course, of why she was sprinting but she just felt like if she didn't hurry that she would miss something or that it would be too late.

She fought bitterly through the nightly New York traffic in her BMW. She was used to this sort of thing and she drove like a mad woman around cabs weaving in and out of traffic. Pedestrians were more worried about being run over by her than the cabs as she continued to drive somewhat erratically.

She arrived at the Sheffield Mansion horrified as a huge cloud of black smoke and the smell of burning permeated through the air. Her thoughts immediately went to the whereabouts of her supposed enemy. She realized that he could be out and not even aware of the fire, but the possibility that he was in the house this very moment scared her tremendously. Clearly the fire department hadn't been called or if they did, they were taking their sweet ass time. As dangerous as this would be, she had to go inside.

Bracing herself, she barged through the front door of the house, the fire hadn't appeared to have encased the entire living room, but smoke was clouding her vision somewhat. She continued her search around the living room. The air grew warmer as she moved closer to the kitchen and she realized that must be the source of the flames. Of course the cardinal rule was never to open a hot door, but C.C. had never been one for following rules. Not wanting to touch the doorknob directly, she found Brighton's baseball bate and started hitting the door. It only took one hit, for the door hadn't been completely shut, and flew open abruptly.

There, on the floor, she saw, Niles covered in flames. Instinct immediately took over and she quickly took off her blazer, as well as some blankets from the living room and put the flames out that had encased him. Adrenaline was rushing through her and she knew that Niles needed to be removed from the house. She grabbed him under the arms and quickly pulled him out of the room. The back door was encased with flames and she knew that she would have to pull him through the front door. With more strength than most women, she continued to drag him through the living room. She didn't stop until she was completely out of the house. She debated on calling an ambulance but decided that waiting would only make his chances of survival less likely.

She continued to drag him until he was next to her car, where she opened the door and lifted him up, first putting his upper body in the seat then lifting his legs in after. Once he was in the car, she immediately, grabbed her cell-phone and called the fire department telling them the address and that no one was there.

She anxiously drove to the hospital, her face etched with worry and fear as the man she loved was on the verge of death in the back seat of her car and he could leave her without ever knowing how truly felt about him.


	2. Stronger Than Ever

_**A/N: I just need to get this out there, wow. I am absolutely ecstatic at the number of reviews this story received so far. I will do individual shout outs to all my lovely reviewers. Thank you so much to Shara Michelle, bogiedevil, Kittensbreath, Avagrace2888, ladybrin, DreamClouds2726, slm38, LaurenLaneLover and SamandDianeFan10 for your lovely reviews. Anyways, hope you continue to read and enjoy this story.**_

C.C. pulled her car up to the front doors of the hospital and sprinted to the front desk. The nurse could clearly see that this woman was distressed as she approached her.

"Can I help you miss?"

Out of breath, C.C. urgently spoke:

"Niles, in my car, burned, unconscious."

"Ma'm I am not quite understanding you."

C.C. caught her breath and opened her mouth to speak once more:

"I have man in my car. I just pulled him out of a fire. He is unconscious. My car is right outside."

The nurse immediately called for some of the staff to get Niles out of the car. They loaded him onto a stretcher and wheeled to the elevator and into the burn unit of the hospital.

Beads of sweat formed on C.C.'s forehead as she saw them briskly wheel Niles into the hospital. She ran her fingers through her hair and paced around the waiting room as the nurse continued to question her.

"Ms. I need you to answer a few more questions."

C.C. was on edge and could feel herself shaking as she paced around the room. She crossed her arms and stopped her walking. That was as far as she could get to gaining her composure.

"Yes, of course, what do you need to know?"

"Name, age, any health history…are you his wife?"

As anxious as she was, she pondered that question. She wondered if they would restrict her from seeing him if she said otherwise. He certainly didn't need that when the Sheffield family wasn't even here. She decided to lie, hoping that would suffice.

"Yes, but I still use my maiden name. His name is Niles Brightmore, age…"

_I don't even know how old he is? Oh my God, how am I going to pass for his wife if I don't even know he age?_

"He is 50. He suffered a mild heart attack about a year and a half ago. Other than that, he hasn't had any other problems."

C.C. could hold herself still no longer. She thought about smoking a cigarette, wondering if that would calm her down, but knowing that smoke inhalation was one of the reasons Niles was at the hospital, it just felt like a tasteless thing to do. Not to mention, she hadn't smoked in a long time.

Even though it was freezing outside, she was sweating even though she had no jacket on at the moment, for she had used her blazer to put out the flames and did not grab her coat out of her car.

_I can't believe this is happening! I swear this damn month is cursed! Oh Niles, how could this happen? How is that you are laying in a hospital bed right now, unconscious, and who knows just how bad the burns are? I need to call Maxwell._

With that thought she dialed Maxwell's cell and waited anxiously for an answer. The phone continued to ring and with no answer, she hung up the phone.

_Damn, they must be out, or it might not be going through on his end with them in the mountains. I still can't believe this is happening. _

She walked around the room a few more times, before finally sitting down. She grabbed a magazine and attempted to read it, but of course, she couldn't focus on it at all and here eyes continued to dart around the room.

Once again, she couldn't stay still and so she got up and paced the room some more. The others in the waiting room were starting to notice her distress and it was rubbing off on them as their faces slowly etched themselves with worry. The anxiety and worry in this waiting room was so thick, that it would take a steak knife to get through.

C.C. hated this feeling of not knowing. She didn't know whether to cry, get angry or feel numb. The only thing she did know was that Niles was suffering and as much as she had pretended to hate him all these years, that was nothing but a front to her true feelings. If he died, she would too. _Damn, when are these damn doctors going to inform me of his condition? _

She had been pacing for a while and several hours had passed since she had been there. She had tried everything in her power to distract her from worrying, but nothing seemed to work. She tried to read a magazine and her mind wandered back to Niles. Watching TV in the waiting room, her mind went back to Niles. It was hopeless. So the only thing she could do was continue pacing the room, running her hands through her medium length bottled blonde hair and running the back of her arm across her forehead to wipe the perspiration away. This pattern of events continued for the several hours she waited before a doctor finally came out to speak to her.

"Mrs. Brightmore…."

Not even bothering to correct the doctor, she quickly approached him before speaking, anxiety and worry clearly evident in her tone:

"How is he?"

"He has been stabilized. Currently we have him hooked to a ventilator to get his breathing back to normal. He will remain in ICU where we will keep him in isolation so his burns do not become infected. He suffered 3rd degree burns on his shoulders, chest and abdominal area as well as moderate burns on his neck and face. There is no question scarring will occur on his body, however, with proper treatment we should be able to minimize the scarring that occurs on his face and neck."

"How long will he need to stay here?" 

"At least a couple of weeks and his recovery process will go on long after he leaves here."

"So, you think he will make it?"

"As long as he does not pick up infection during his first few days of stay here, I am optimistic that he will recover. Of course, physically, he will never be the same again, but he is lucky to be alive at all."

Worry was still etched on her face as she took in his words. She thought about him, alone in the room, how much pain he would be in when he woke up, the scaring that he would surely suffer from afterwards. The thought made her absolutely sick. It wasn't that she would love him any less because of this. It just caused her absolute anguish to imagine his beautiful bronzed skin, that she had had the pleasure of taking in one time during their drunken night, encased in fire and later deformed because of it. Truth be told, she was starting to become physically ill at this point. She had more questions for the doctor, but they could wait.

"Thank you, doctor" she said quickly. He briskly walked away before she ran into the ladies room and burst the door open to the first stall in sight. She lifted the seat up quickly, crouched on her knees and held her head over the toilet as the sickness overcame her and she vomited in the hospital stall. He face had turned ghostly white and the perspiration had soaked the top of her head, making her hair stick to the sides of her face.

She flushed the toilet and put the seat back before bracing herself with the sides of the stall to stand up. Sadly after vomiting, she still did not feel any better. She washed her hands and washed out her mouth with some water hoping to get the dreadful taste out of her mouth. She glanced at her appearance in the mirror, but made no effort whatsoever to fix it before walking out of the restroom.

The nurse could clearly see in C.C.'s appearance that she was both physically and mentally ill from the ordeal that Niles' had gone through. She was an older woman close to retirement but nonetheless she worked in the waiting room 5 days a week, 8 hours a day and had seen her fair share of distressed and grieving people. But as she looked at C.C. Babcock pacing around the room again, she knew that this one was an exception to the norm.

"Ummmm…. Miss Babcock, you know you really should go home and get some sleep, maybe eat something. Go home dear and get some rest. Come back in the morning. Your husband will be just fine."

C.C. was on the verge of a breakdown at this point and didn't want to have it in front of this nurse.

"Ok", she said quietly before briskly walking out of the hospital and getting into her BMW where she balled the entire way to her penthouse apartment.

She had turned off her tears, however, as she got out of the car and got on the elevator. At this point, she just felt numb. She was not used to dealing with these floods of emotions in such a short time span. She wasn't completely there as she stared at the walls of the elevator, with her eyes widened, waiting to get to her floor.

She walked out of the elevator and fumbled with the keys of her apartment before opening the door. Almost zombie like, she headed to her bedroom where she brushed her teeth (mostly to get rid of the awful taste in her mouth), and plopped onto her bed not even bothering to change.

As she sat there, however, she realized that sleep was not coming to her as several hours had gone passed on her clock. She decided she mine as well put something comfortable on and changed into her pajamas. She laid back down once again, but just continued to stare at her bedroom wall. She thought about her past with Niles, her present with Niles and how things were going to be different. It took her so long to realize just how much she needed him in her life.

With this realization came a sudden promise and testament. C.C. Babcock would be there for his recovery process and everything it entailed.

So as she sat there, getting no sleep at all, she channeled the anxiety and worry into a new sense of determination. Niles would get better, just as he did through the heart attack, he would recover and he would be stronger than ever.


	3. Just Trust Me

_**A/N: Hello Hello, my fellow readers and writers! Sorry I haven't updated as quickly as usual. School and my tutoring job have been quite hectic this week. Not to mention I had slight writer's block as I attempted to write this chapter. This tends to happen when I write scenes dealing with the hospital. Anyways, thank you so much to Starry Peaches, Shara Michelle, ElectraE, ladybrin, Kittensbreath, rx9872, and LaurenLaneLover for reviewing chapter 2. Hope you continue to enjoy this story.**_

C.C. hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. The only thing that had been on her mind the entire night was helping Niles get through the recovery process and making sure he got better.

She would go to the hospital, first thing, to see how he was doing. She took a shower, hoping that the water hitting her face would wash away the uneasiness caused by both Niles' condition and the fact that she didn't sleep all night.

She slipped into the only pair of blue jeans that she owned and put on a comfortable red blouse and a pair of sneakers. She brewed herself a cup of coffee, hoping that it would pick her up some, but no such luck. Regardless of what she did, her stress level remained high, and her eyes drooped with tiredness as Niles remained on her mind. She needed to go to the hospital this instant and find out what was going on with him. She would rather be there, pacing in the waiting room, than sitting in her penthouse waiting for a phone call, not knowing his condition immediately.

So, with this thought in mind, she grabbed her purse and keys and headed out her door, down the elevator and hopped into her BMW.

Fighting through the morning New York City traffic, she made it to the hospital with impeccable timing. She parked and walked into the waiting room where she was greeted at the front desk by a different nurse than the night before.

"Hi, Miss, can I help you?"

"Yes. I am checking on… my husband, Niles Brightmore."

"Hmm…he is in room 331 of the burn unit. The elevator is just down the hall."

"Thank you."

And before the nurse could say anything else, she dashed to the elevator and headed to the 3rd floor. She exited the elevator and was greeted by the doctor she had spoken with the night before, for he was working a double shift.

"Hi, Mrs. Brightmore. I have some good news for you. We were able to take your husband off the ventilator this morning. Of course, he still has a long road ahead of him, but this is definitely a big step in the right direction."

"May I see him?"

"Yes. Let me explain the visiting procedures. In order to avoid infection, you will need to wear an isolation gown, along with gloves, shoe covers and a mask. They are kept right outside the door."

"Thank you, doctor."

With that, she walked over, put on the necessary attire and slowly opened the door to his room.

She took in the sight of him, his upper body, neck and face completely wrapped in white sterile bandages. He was hooked to an IV, which was injecting him with drugs to ease the pain he was surely feeling. As horrible as it was to see him in this mummified state, the image of his what his charred skin might look like would have completely thrown her over the edge.

Through the openings in the bandages, she could see the lids of his eyes and the slight purse of his lips as he slept. Just by his expression, she could immediately tell that he was in pain and it sickened her tremendously. She wasn't usually the selfless type, but she would have given anything in the world to get him out of this situation.

She took his hand in hers hoping that, in some strange way, she could bring some sort of comfort to him. Some of her uneasiness was lifted as she felt his strong heavy hand in between hers. It was one of the parts of his upper body that had not been encased by the fire. His arms and hands were still bronzed and smooth skinned just as the rest of his upper body had been before the fire.

She continued to sit with his hand in hers before she noticed him start to stir. His eyes slowly fluttered open. She was about to say hello to him before she saw his mouth tighten together as he winced in pain. The physically ill feeling that C.C. had felt the night before was starting to come back to her once more. She needed to get out of the room and she quickly released his hand, got up from the chair and briskly walked to the door. She was stopped, however, as she heard his voice. As hoarse as it sounded, she knew he was desperate.

"Miss Babcock….please….don't go."

As ill as C.C. felt, she knew it was her job to be there for him and so she turned around and immediately sat back down in the chair that she had pulled next to him earlier.

"Niles…."

"Miss Babcock….does it look as bad as it hurts?"

She could see the suffering in the cerulean blue irises of his eyes. As many times as she had stepped on his foot, or hit him over the head or slapped him with the newspaper and heard him yelp in pain, she knew that these times were no comparison to what he was feeling now.

"No, you look great, Butler boy", she said, although her tone clearly revealed otherwise.

"Don't lie to me, Miss Babcock."

"Well, I can't really tell, Niles, they are all wrapped up…"

"Oh God…"

"Niles, is it the pain, do you want me to get a doctor, what is it?"

"No, it's not that Ms. Babcock. Oh, why am I about to tell you this?"

"Please Niles, I am here for you, what is it?"

He decided to trust her as he revealed the new fear that the burns had suddenly brought on. His voice was still hoarse, but clearly filled with hurt and worry as he revealed his inner emotions.

"It's my life. My chance of starting a life of my own has been completely wiped away. Nobody will even want to look at me let alone think about being with me. I won't even have the opportunity to see them run when I tell them that I am nothing but a domestic."

Normally C.C. would have easily used this opportunity to insult him. But seeing him this defeated and in both physical and mental pain made her heart ache. But as much as she felt for him, she suddenly became angry as he laid in the hospital bed feeling sorry for himself.

"Niles, you listen to me right now! You are going to get through this. Do you hear me? There are people who need you, Maxwell, the children, Nanny Fine and….me."

She paused for a minute as she realized she had let her guard down somewhat. Even if what she said was completely true, it terrified her tremendously.

"We all need you Niles! Don't give up on us! Listen! Your recovery process is going to be a long road. I know the two of us have gone out of our ways to make each others' lives miserable on a daily basis, but I promise you that I will be with you every step of the way. I say that from the bottom of my heart."

Niles, secretly, feeling better at her admission of feelings, couldn't help but crack a barb at her expense.

"I was unaware you had a heart, Babcock."

As sick as she had felt earlier, she actually chuckled as his wise crack. Her laughing was quickly turned off, however, as she saw him wince in pain once more as he shifted his position slightly.

"Niles, do you want me to go get one of the doctors? "

"No, I'm fine, Miss Babcock."

But clearly he was not fine, as he clenched his teeth together. He could hold in the agony he was feeling no longer and the excruciating pain overcame him, causing him to cry out.

C.C. couldn't stand seeing him like this and immediately stood up from the chair.

"Niles, I am getting a doctor."

And before he could object, she ran out of the room and found the doctor she had talked to before.

"My husband is in extreme agony. Please do something! I know he acts as if he can take it, but I can see he is suffering a great deal."

"I will have one of the nurses up his dose of morphine in an hour or so…"

C.C. lost control as her feelings for Niles bubbled over and her concern for him caused her to outburst suddenly.

"Listen up doctor, my husband is suffering right now! If he is not helped immediately, you will have me to answer to! Get the picture?"

The doctor gulped in fear before nodding his head and obeying this extremely headstrong woman.

Knowing that she had gotten through to him, she headed back to his room once more.

Her request must have been granted because he was clearly becoming slightly loopy from the increase in his morphine dose. She could see the droopiness of his eyes and he actually smiled as she walked back into the room. She could see him slipping away into a sleepy slumber, but flashed him a smile back, nonetheless.

Sleepily, he spoke to her.

"C.C, thank you."

And the last thing he saw were the sky blue irises of her eyes before he entered a deep sleep.

His dreams were filled with the blonde socialite but not one of the normal sexual fantasies that he had about her on almost a daily basis. No, this dream was different.

_The two of them were in a room together. The walls surrounding them were an off-white color. Described in one word, the room was safe. There was a large doorway however that led into what appeared to be a black nothingness. Needless to say, crossing this threshold would prove to be risky. But it was a risk that C.C. Babcock was willing to take as she stood at the edge of the doorway. She held out her hand for Niles to take. No doubt he was skeptical at first, but decided to follow her lead and took her hand in his. The two of them walked into the black nothingness together hand and hand before Niles woke up suddenly. _

He peered around the room as he pondered this strange dream. Although it was strikingly different from the normal dreams he had about Babcock, he was no less intrigued by it, for any dream with Babcock excited him.

He was interrupted in his thoughts as the object of his affection walked into the room. She saw that he was awake, and sat in the chair next to him, once more.

"Are you feeling better, Niles?" she asked with serious concern in her tone.

"I am now", he blurted out before realizing his lapse in judgment.

She blushed slightly at his comment and even though his upper body was in complete pain his heart pounded wild and his completely unscathed lower body twitched in desire at her response.

"I talked to the doctor while you were asleep. He said that for the first few days, the risk of infection would be extremely high for your burns. I know it has only been a day, but you seem to be doing quite well considering the circumstances. When you are able to leave the hospital, you can either stay at my place or I will stay at the mansion."

"Ummm…Babcock, am I missing something here? How exactly are you involved in all this?"

"Niles, did you not listen to a word I said to you earlier? I said I would be there for you _every_ step of the way to recovery. I meant what I said."

"I can't help but be skeptical about all this, Babs."

She understood his concern but was still slightly offended at his doubting of her good intentions. She wanted to go off on him, but knowing that would not be the best approach to solving this problem, she decided otherwise.

"Just trust me."

And she put his hand in hers once more and the two of them just sat together for a while before Niles fell asleep once more. Any shift of movement and she could see him writhe in pain as he attempted to sleep. As much as she wanted to be there to support him, she knew that if she continued to watch him strain in his sleep she would become ill again. So with a final squeeze of his hand, she walked out of the room, took off the isolation attire and headed downstairs and out to her BMW, where she would drive and get something to eat. She ended up sitting in a Chinese restaurant, waiting for her food to cook before heading back to her penthouse. She ate in silence as she continued to think about Niles. It had been extremely difficult for her to express any inkling of her true feelings towards him.

But drastic times, such as this, usually called for drastic measures and she would do all in her power to make sure he recovered soundly.

She tried calling Maxwell again but still could not get through. It angered her tremendously as she imagined the family having a splendid time skiing and just spending time together in the cabin whiles Niles fought for his life and suffered in a hospital bed. Life really was unfair.

She headed to her bedroom, where she brushed her teeth, slipped on her pajamas and crawled into her bed. She fell asleep fairly quickly and her dreams went to Niles.

_He was bandaged and sitting in a wheel chair as she look at him. It was time to take the bandages off and change them for the first time. She slowly unwrapped his bandages and revealed the effects of the burns. He was completely blackened and she could feel herself starting to cry. She walked over after soaking the new bandages to reapply them to his affected areas. But before she was able to put them on, his head cracked and his body started to crumble to the ground. Her crying turned into a blood-curdling scream that woke her up immediately._

She sprung out of bed, dripping in sweat, her heart pumping madly. She could feel herself shaking in distress. _It was just a dream, C.C. Pull yourself together. He's fine. You will visit him in the morning and he will recover smoothly. Do you hear me? He will get better if you have anything to do with it. _

As much as she told herself this, however, she couldn't help but worry about him as she lay in her bed that night. This ordeal was really making her realize just how much she needed this man in her life on a daily basis.


	4. Upcoming Changes

_**A/N: Hello Hello! Again, I am ecstatic at the response I have gotten for this story. Thank you all so much for reading. A special thanks goes out to Kittensbreath, ladybrin, Shara Michelle, rx9872, ElectraE, AllTheSnakes, LaurenLaneLover and Lucky Starz for reviewing chapter 3. Hope you like this chapter!**_

Chapter 4-Upcoming Changes

Several days had gone by since C.C. had rescued Niles from the fire. Although he was recovering quite soundly for a burn victim, she still worried about him, nonetheless. He had gotten through the first few days without becoming infected. This was certainly a huge leap for him. The doctors were also able to completely rid his face and neck of bandages and these areas were projected to heal completely within the next couple of weeks. As of now, his face was a bed of blisters, but thankfully this wouldn't remain the case.

C.C. had been so caught up in Niles' condition and recovery process that she hadn't even thought about checking on the mansion. Surely, it wouldn't be the same after the downstairs kitchen had been engulfed in flames.

It was around 9:00 am when she got into her BMW and headed over to the mansion. What she saw was absolutely devastating. Although the majority of the house was still intact, the kitchen and living room area were completely destroyed. The once lightly colored walls were now completely charred and blackened. Even though the fire had occurred several days ago, there was still smokiness about the air. The smell was mostly gone, but there was still a hint of it looming in the air.

The house, itself, had a big gaping hole, in which, any outsider could see right through it and even walk in if they so chose. The house hadn't even been sealed off and C.C. wondered now if things might have been stolen from the completely unscathed upstairs.

She was surprised that she hadn't received any phone calls, although she realized then, that she hadn't checked her business line for messages in several days. Grabbing her cell phone, she immediately dialed in and checked her messages. Sure enough, she had at least 10 different messages asking her about the whereabouts of the Sheffields, where they were planning on going, were they all right, etc. As much as it pained her, she knew they would be expecting a press conference and she needed to handle the situation tastefully and truthfully.

She knew she needed to get a hold of Maxwell and inform him of everything that had happened within the last few days. She tried his number again and finally got through to him.

"Hello, Maxwell Sheffield speaking."

"Maxwell, finally! I have been trying to get a hold of you for days! Some things have happened since you and the family have been away."

"C.C. I don't like the sound of this, what do you mean?"

"Maxwell, I don't know what happened, but somehow the mansion caught on fire with Niles trapped inside!"

"Oh God, Niles, is he alright?"

"Well, if you mean alive, then yes. He suffered severe burns on his chest and abdominal areas. His face and neck were burned as well, but the doctor is optimistic that those burns will heal back to normal. He is going to be in pain for a while and will have severe scarring all over his upper body. "

"Oh my God, C.C.! I can't imagine how difficult this must be for him and for you, putting aside your hatred and helping him out. "

Of course, C.C. wasn't ready to reveal that this supposed "hate" was a little more inaccurate than she let on.

"As heartless as I appear to be, Maxwell, I don't wish death or physical pain on anyone…well, there might be a few exceptions that that statement."

"C.C., if you don't mind me asking, how is the house?"

"Well, to be blunt, Maxwell, it is in terrible shape. The kitchen and living room need to be renovated and I am not convinced that some looting might not have occurred. I haven't really checked inside, to be honest."

"Well don't bother, I'll have the fire department do that. The walls of the house could still be unstable from the burning. Oh God, how am I going to tell Fran and the children about this? They will be devastated."

C.C. was a little peeved at the fact that he seemed more worried about how he would tell the children than Niles' condition, but she really didn't have the energy to go off on him.

"Maxwell, I am really the wrong person to ask about that."

"Well, C.C. we are coming home immediately, Fran, the children and I will be home within the next few hours, I'll be sure of that. I'll call you when we get here."

"Ok, Maxwell, I am scheduled to do a press release in the next few hours. Do you think you will be back in time?"

"I hope so, C.C. In the meantime, please send Niles our love and we will be there to visit him soon."

"Ok, goodbye Maxwell."

"Bye, C.C."

C.C. hung up the phone and took one last look at the house. So many things had happened in the last few days and no doubt, nothing would ever be completely the same again. Even if Maxwell had completely fixed up the house, it would still be different than before. Physically, of course, Niles would never be the same as well.

This ordeal would, without a doubt, have a serious impact on the upcoming courses of their lives'. C.C. wasn't sure if she was ready for these changes but whatever curve ball this game called life threw at her, she would, without a doubt, do the best she could to hit it out of the park.

As much as she expected things to be different, however, she never pondered just how different her relationship would be with Niles after this ordeal. She just felt some sort of obligation to help him and in no way, did she expect that their relationship would amount to anything more than her being his caretaker.

Even though C.C. was somewhat aware of her feelings for Niles, she still, nevertheless, had a hard time admitting them both out loud and to herself. She would try and explain this hold he had over her as the mere desire to help her business partner. But as much as she told herself this, she knew she was lying to herself.

And so she rode down the street and fought through the New York City traffic continuing to think about the changes that would occur in upcoming months of her life. She planned on taking full time charge and responsibility in Niles' recovery process. Explaining this sudden compassion toward Niles' to Maxwell may prove to be difficult, but she would _not_ let Niles' face this road alone.

As she continued to think about him, she thought about the approximate year it would take for the rest of his burns to heal. She wondered what would happen when he was physically able to take care of himself and begin working again. Would their relationship go back to normal? Insults, banter, hatred, making each others' lives a daily hell?

It didn't seem natural and yet, it happened between them time and time again. There were so many passionate moments shared between these two, in which C.C. could safely say she felt more than just pure lust, that had just been forgotten, or in her case, never mentioned, for she had cherished these moments they had.

It actually broke her heart tremendously to think that after all they had been through and would go through together in the near future would never amount to anything more than just "the spur of the moment".

But as much as she needed something more in her life than just a successful career, she knew that right now was not the time to worry about her own needs. Right now, it was about Niles' getting better.

With this last thought in mind, she arrived at the hospital, where she parked her car and headed into the building. She was greeted by the nurse at the front desk as she continued on her way up to the 3rd floor. The staff at the hospital had become quite familiar with C.C. Babcock, for she had been visiting Niles on a daily basis.

She made it to his room, where she slowly opened the door and peered inside. She was quite taken aback at the sight of him. This was the first day she had seen him without bandages on his face and although she knew the blisters would heal soon, she was still shaken at the sight of them on his face. His normally, bronzed face with a few chiseled laugh lines and strong supportive neck were covered with blisters.

C.C. was starting to become sick at the sight of him. It wasn't physical repulsion, but more concern about the pain those areas were surely causing him. She tried to cover up the contorted look on her face as she sat in the chair next to his bedside. Of course, he saw it immediately and figured it was because she was disgusted by the sight of him.

She put her head down, hoping that he wouldn't see her face as she became ill at the thought of his pain. He, of course, figured it was because she couldn't look at him.

He immediately became angry as she sat there next to him and opened his mouth to speak, bitterness clearly evident in his tone of voice.

"So I guess you really are disgusted by the sight of me! I haven't even seen my own face yet. "

C.C. immediately felt the need to reassure him.

"Niles, it isn't that at all. I just was worried….." she stammered on her words trying to find the right ones without revealing too much.

"Do they hurt?"

"Well, they sting some, but my upper body is still in excruciating pain." As if to show her, he winced in pain as he shifted his position slightly.

C.C. put her head down again, trying not to look as the thought of him suffering made her physically ill again.

Niles, of course, saw her put her head down again and misinterpreted it.

"Miss Babcock, look at me or just get out of here! If you are here on some guilt trip or ploy to make Mr. Sheffield like you more, I won't have it. If you are so repulsed by the sight of me, just leave."

The bitterness of his words stung as she sat down next to him with her head down. She wasn't usually emotional but she had been on edge for several days now. It took all the strength she could muster to suppress the tears that were about to erupt from her light blue eyes. She felt a few tears escape and quickly wiped them away before looking back up at him again.

Niles immediately felt guilty as he looked in her soft blue irises, for he could tell that her eyes were watery on account of him. He felt the need to apologize to her.

"Miss Babcock…..I'm sorry. .."

And before he could stop himself he extended his hand and cupped her cheek. She leaned into it for a brief moment and reveled in the strength that he clearly still possessed in his unscathed hands.

He slowly dropped his hand from her face and the two blue-eyed individuals just stared into one another's eyes for a moment before C.C. opened her mouth to speak.

"Niles, I talked to Maxwell. He said that he would be back with Nanny Fine and the children in the next few hours or so. They will come visit you as soon as they arrive, I'm sure…"

"Miss Babcock, why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Still call Fran, Nanny Fine? Clearly the kids, are the age where she is no longer their Nanny and she and Mr. Sheffield are married. Why do you continue to call her that?"

C.C., slightly taken aback by his question, realized she didn't have a straight answer for it, as she thought about it. She no longer had any serious feelings for Maxwell and yet she continued to deny that Fran and Maxwell were married.

"Maybe I am envious of her…"

"Oh really, how much did you pay to find that out?"

C.C. just glared at him before she continued.

"It's not so much the fact that I am jealous of the fact that she has Maxwell. Truth is, any feelings I had for him are long gone. I am just envious of what she has. She has people that love her, a husband, the children, you, her parents, her senile grandmother, and Val. I am just jealous of her life. I have been given everything I could imagine for so long and yet, I have never, once, experienced the love that she does on a daily basis. Truth is, I just want what she has….I'm sorry, Niles, this isn't about me. This is about your recovery…"

He put his finger to her lips to shush her. Truth was, the bitterness he felt just moments earlier had gone away as she revealed that she no longer had feelings for Maxwell.

"I asked, Babcock, and you told, simple as that."

He flashed her a smile and although his face was covered in blisters, she knew that he was still the same witty, charming, clever and devilishly handsome man she had fallen in love with so many years ago. Through the swelling on his face, the gleam in his eye shined through as bright as ever.

"Well, this isn't about me right now."

"Miss Babcock, I am just thankful that anyone is here at this point. Continue to talk about yourself, I don't mind. It is just nice having someone here when you are expected to stay in a hospital for a bloody fortnight."

"Oh, Niles, you just reminded me. I went to the mansion this morning and to be quite honest it is in terrible shape…."

She suddenly saw the color drain out of his face as she spoke of the house.

"Niles, what is wrong?"

"Nothing…what were you saying?'

But she knew better than that and so she asked him again.

"Niles, I wasn't born yesterday, what is wrong? You're as white as a bed sheet."

Feeling slightly emasculated, he decided to tell her.

"It's just when you mentioned the house, I couldn't help but think about what happened that night. Truth is, I have always been afraid of fire and for good reason. Look what it's done to me!"

"Niles, it's alright. I just told you my life story and you just went through an extremely traumatic experience. I won't use it against you, _today_", she chuckled.

He was extremely comforted by the fact that she seemed to understand and he chuckled along with her.

"So, Niles, would you like to stay at my penthouse for the duration of your recovery? The doctor said you could be released in about a week and half. Your face should be healed by then and I will help you make sure the burns on your…chest are kept clean and the dressings are changed daily."

"Do I have a choice in the matter, Babs?"

"Well, you could stay at a hotel with the Sheffields while they renovate the mansion", she said before crossing her arms.

Truthfully Niles hated hotels and was excited by the prospect of staying with Babcock.

"No, I'll stay at your place. I am sure that even your place of satanic rituals has fewer germs than any hotel."

"Can it, Butler Boy, or I will revoke the offer."

Of course, that was a lie, but she figured she would stay in rhythm with him.

"You know I am not used to you being so nice."

"Yeah, well, don't get used to", she said with a smile that lit up the room and made his heart pump wild.

They both laughed at her wise crack before she told him she had to leave.

"Well, as much at it kills me, I have to go and do a press release about the condition of the house and Maxwell's whereabouts. Hopefully he will be back so I don't have to do it alone."

"Babs, you never struck me as the type that couldn't handle anything on her own or that needed any help from a man."

"Is that a compliment, Toilet Brush?"

"Hardly, Babcock" but the glimmer in his eye and the smile on his face said otherwise.

She took his hand in hers briefly and squeezed it before wishing him a final goodbye.

Although she knew that he was still in quite a bit of pain, she was ecstatic to see that he seemed a great deal better than when she visited him initially. She couldn't help but think about his touch. The wonderful feeling of his strong, slightly calloused but nonetheless, soft hands cupping her cheek clouded her thoughts. She had scared herself tremendously as she gave into her feelings earlier but she reassured herself that he didn't seem to notice or was just too tired to insult her about her insecurities.

At any rate, he was better and he was willing to let her help him recover and that was her biggest concern right now. That night, she planned on beginning to prepare her place for his arrival.

With these thoughts in mind, she got into her car and immediately dialed Maxwell. She expected he should be back by now and when he answered, she confirmed that he was. The family was staying at the Plaza Hotel for the several weeks it would take to renovate the mansion.

"Maxwell, when are we going to do the press release? I had scheduled to do it…."

"Already taken care of C.C. Don't worry about it. It went rather well."

Normally C.C. would have been livid at the fact that he didn't consult with her about something business related, but she had been dreading this so much that she was actually relieved as he told her this.

"C.C., how's Niles anyway? Did you visit him recently?"

"I just came from the hospital actually. He seems to be doing rather well considering the circumstances. I am sure he would love to see you, Fran and the children."

"Yes, I am sure he would, I am actually heading to go pick them up and visit him now. Where are you headed, C.C.?"

"Well, I guess I'll go home Maxwell, since we no longer have to do the press release."

"Well, goodnight, C.C., I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Goodbye Maxwell."

And with that she hung up the phone and headed to her apartment. When she arrived there, she looked around and had the sudden urge to do something that she had never really done on her own, clean. She wanted to make the place spotless and as germ free as possible for Niles arrival and so she grabbed the cleaning products normally used by her housekeeper and began cleaning, starting from the front door and moving to each room of the apartment.

When she was done cleaning, she realized that she needed to designate an area for him to stay. She had an extra bedroom in her apartment that she currently used as an office. She decided that this would be Niles temporary bedroom and she moved onto that room, cleaning up everything in there and moving the desk from the room into the living room. She would find a spot on the wall where it could go until he recovered. She realized she didn't have a bed for him, but decided that she would buy one and have the store deliver it. After all, she needed a guest room anyways, right?

She laughed at this thought, as she came to the conclusion that she really never had guests at her house.

_Niles would die if he knew that he would be one of the first overnight guests I've ever had at this apartment. _

With this thought, she continued to prepare the room until she was satisfied with its appearance.

By this time, it was quite late and she had become exhausted. She headed upstairs, put on her pajamas, brushed her teeth and crawled into bed.

Her dreams, that night, were filled with images of Niles and her spending time together. Truth was she couldn't wait to have him as a _guest_ at her apartment. She was in love with him, after all. Whether he returned those feelings or not, she didn't know, but she was excited to spend time with him, nonetheless and she, no doubt, needed to be fully involved in his recovery process. It was her duty and she planned to fulfill it.

As difficult as Niles' recovery process would be, she couldn't help but beam in happiness at the prospect of him staying there. Maybe some of these changes in their lives wouldn't be so bad after all.


	5. The First Step

_**A/N: Hi everyone! Another emotional chapter to share with you all! I want to thank all of you for reading and special thanks to Shara Michelle, Kittensbreath, rx9872, LaurenLaneLover, StarryPeaches, Vee22, Lucky Starz, AllTheSnakes, ladybrin and ElectraE for taking the time to review chapter 4. Also, although she will never understand my obsession, I would also like to thank my mother for giving me medical information for this story. Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys this!**_

Chapter 5 – The First Step

Two and half weeks had gone by since Niles had been rescued. Christmas was only a couple of days away and Niles was looking forward to spending the holiday in a warm comfortable bed at C.C.'s apartment.

Unfortunately, the mansion was still in the process of being renovated, so the family would be spending Christmas at the hotel.

Maxwell had ordered the house to be thoroughly searched and it was revealed that nothing exceedingly valuable had been taken. The only things that were missing were some of the children's belongings, 2 more expensive items being Brighton's Super Nintendo and Maggie's boom box. Of course, these items would be easy enough to replace, and Maxwell was grateful that the looters clearly had no conception of how valuable some of the antiquities around the house were.

Although she would never admit it out loud, it was clearly evident that C.C. was extremely excited about Niles' release. She could hardly hide the smile on her face, as it went ear to ear and lit up every room she entered.

The nurse at the front desk couldn't help but feel warm inside as she witnessed the daily devotion that this woman displayed to a man (whom she knew) was not C.C.'s husband. Truth was, this nurse was a sucker for romance and knew immediately that these two individuals had feelings for one another. She just hoped and prayed that these two could work things out and find one another through his recovery process.

With this thought in mind, she saw C.C. walk in and greeted her.

"Hello, Miss Babcock. How are you, this morning?"

"Wonderful!"

"Glad to hear it. Mr. Brightmore is waiting for you. The doctor should be up there, as well, to discuss what needs to be done for the remainder of his recovery."

"Thank you", C.C. said with a simple smile before briskly walking to the elevator and heading up the 3rd floor.

She opened the door to his room and was ecstatic to see that he was awake and appeared to be in a good mood.

"Hello Miss Babcock. Happy to see you didn't change your mind about freeing me from this hell hole."

"Well don't push my buttons Butler Boy or I may change my mind."

The two of them chuckled at her comment before the doctor opened the door.

"Good morning, Mr. Brightmore. I presume you are happy about your release?"

"Ecstatic, would be the word!"

"That's wonderful. Anyways, as you know, the burns that you suffered on your chest and abdominal areas were quite severe. For your recovery, I highly recommend that you go through a series of skin graft operations to help minimize the scarring as much as possible. With these operations, we would take skin from other parts of your body and apply them to the affected areas. You would be put under anesthesia during the procedures, of course. You will experience a little discomfort for a few days after the procedures, but these operations will definitely help make the scarring feel more normal and minimize it somewhat.

"How many operations would I need?"

"You were extremely lucky in the regard that your lower body was completely unaffected, therefore, you won't need as many operations as the average burn victim. I have recommended 4 skin grafts be performed and the schedule is listed in your recovery plan."

"Thank you, doctor."

"Here are your release papers."

He handed Niles the papers, indicating the places where he needed to sign. Niles quickly scribbled his signature and the doctor handed him a folder with his detailed recovery instructions inside before heading out of the room.

Niles was still in the hospital bed when the doctor left. The doctor had brought in a wheel chair for him to sit in on the way down to C.C.'s BMW.

Niles realized then, that he was still in a hospital robe and a pair of briefs. His only coverage was the white bed sheet draped over his legs.

As if she read his mind, C.C. pulled out some clothes from the large black shoulder bag that she was carrying.

"Maxwell retrieved some of your belongings and I brought them to the penthouse. Here, I brought you something comfortable to wear on the way…home."

She felt strange saying this, knowing that, in no way did he consider her penthouse his home. She knew the implications of her statement and she hoped that he wouldn't think anything of what she just said.

She handed him his clothes, a pair of dark gray sweatpants and white cotton t-shirt.

"I wasn't sure if you would want a shirt, I know how painful the burns have been for you and I wasn't sure if the material would irritate them."

"Of course, I would want the shirt. I don't want the whole world feeling sorry for me and staring at my bandages on the way out of this God forsaken place!"

Relieved he didn't seem to notice her previous comment as being strange, she started to head out of the room to give him some privacy as he started to get up. Through clenched teeth, he groaned in pain.

The conflicting urges to leave the room or help him fought with one another inside her as she saw him struggle.

The urge to help him would win, of course, with a little coaxing.

Clearly having a hard time, he bashfully asked her for help.

"Miss Babcock…would you mind…helping me up?"

She immediately rushed over to him.

"Sure, Niles, whatever you need."

She grabbed his hand as he threw his legs over the side of the bed. She, then, grabbed his other hand and slowly guided him into a standing position.

As he stood up, his robe blew open, and C.C. could feel her eyes wandering to the bulge in his black briefs. She silently scolded herself for thinking about him in such a way at a time like this, but kept her eyes locked there, nonetheless.

Once upright, Niles had no problem slipping on his sweatpants. He grabbed the t-shirt next. He put his arms under the shirt and was about to begin to slip it over his head, when pain overcame him and he cried out as the shirt slipped off his forearms and onto the ground.

C.C. winced as she saw him in anguish. It caused her extreme pain to see him like this.

She went to retrieve his shirt off the ground. As Niles stood there, his mood changed instantly as he realized his incapabilities.

"Niles, let's just go. Nobody will even see you and the ride to the penthouse will be quick."

"I refuse to walk out of this room without a shirt on. I don't want an audience gaping at my injuries."

"Well, at least let me help you put it on."

"I can put on my own shirt, Miss Babcock."

"Niles, please. Just let me help you."

"Fine."

"Put your arms up."

He obliged her request and she put her arms in the t-shirt to open it up. Slowly, she slipped it over his arms, head and shoulders, taking in the feeling of his skin with her fingertips as she did so. She let the t-shirt fall down his torso and smoothed it out, careful not to touch his burns through the material.

"There. Are you happy now?"

"Yes, thank you", he grumbled.

"Now, sit down and I will wheel you out of here, if you ever plan on leaving this place." 

"Oh no, I will walk! I am not sitting in that thing. I am perfectly capable of walking out of here myself."

"Niles, you really don't have a choice in the matter, hospital policy, now sit down", the tone of her voice firm but understanding.

"No!"

"Niles, if you don't sit down this instant, I'm walking right out that door and leaving you here", she said seriously.

"Fine", he groaned defeated and obliged her request.

Quickly, but in control, she wheeled him out of the room to the elevator and headed down to the lobby.

"Stay here, I'll go pull the car up."

"Can't I just walk to the car?"

"Sorry, Niles, can't let you do that."

"Why?"

"You know why, now stay here and let me get the damn car!"

"Fine."

She briskly walked out the door, pulled her car up and wheeled him to the passenger's side before helping him into the vehicle. She returned the wheelchair to the inside of the building and got into the car, putting the keys in the ignition and starting the engine

Little was said between them on the drive back to her penthouse. Niles was still a little peeved at the fact that he was being treated like a cripple. Although he was thankful that C.C. had kindly offered him her place and help with his recovery, he did not want her to feel sorry for him and do every little simple task for him. He still needed to feel independent after all.

They arrived at her apartment building soon enough. C.C. helped him out of the car and the two of them walked to the elevator together. Finally, Niles opened his mouth to speak.

"You know this is the first time in a while that I have been on my feet for a reason other than to walk to the bathroom."

"Well, I am glad you are feeling well enough to walk."

"Miss Babcock, my legs weren't burnt you know."

"I know, but still pain anywhere can make a person not feel well enough to perform simple tasks. I'm just glad you feel alright."

"I'm a big boy, Miss Babcock, don't worry about me."

But he was secretly beaming inside as he realized that she cared about his welfare.

"I'm not worrying. I'm just…. fulfilling a promise that I made to you."

"Whatever, you say", he flashed her a smile causing her heat to skip a beat and her stomach to do flip-flops.

The elevator opened up and the two of them headed to her apartment door. She fumbled with the keys before opening the door. The two of them stepped into the penthouse before C.C. closed the door behind them.

"Niles let me show you your room."

They headed to the spare bedroom and she opened the door. She had invested in a king sized bed for the room as well as some cherry wood dressers and a matching nightstand. She had also taken the liberty of putting some of his belongings in their proper places.

Niles immediately noticed the mirror attached the dresser and briskly walked toward it before staring at his reflection.

"This is the first time I have seen my reflection since before…that night."

"Well, your face and neck healed rather well."

And they had. Although slightly rougher to the touch than before, his face had healed almost completely normally and Niles was relieved that he didn't look like Freddy Krueger as he stared at himself in the mirror.

"Yep, you're still the same old crone you were before", she laughed at her insult.

"Takes one to know one, now doesn't it!"

"I guess so."

They walked out of his room and sat across from one another at her dining room table.

"Hey Miss Babcock, you know, Christmas is in 2 days. I know that you are extremely bitter during this time of year, but would it have killed you to decorate the house a little bit?"

"This holiday is nothing but an excuse for people to take off work, fake affection and waste perfectly good money on meaningless gifts. Why would I decorate for a holiday that is completely senseless?"

He was taken aback by the sudden bitterness of her voice, but not at all surprised about her personal feelings.

"C.C. you and I both know it is more than that."

"Nope, I don't think so", she said, the hurt she experienced all those previous years was etched on her face.

"Why do you hate this holiday so much?"

"Niles, I really don't want to talk about it. Besides it is about time to change your bandages."

"Woman, you are not touching those bandages until you tell me why you hate Christmas so much."

"Niles, your bandages need to be changed. I am not playing around."

"C.C., really, just tell me why you hate Christmas so much? I know there is more to it than what you are telling me."

She pondered for a minute about whether or not she should tell him. It was strange, opening up to him. Showing him even a smidgeon of vulnerability scared her tremendously, but she decided that if she had to tell him in order to let her change his bandages then she would.

"Fine. I'll tell you. My hatred for Christmas stems from the fact that I have suffered nothing but misery during this holiday. "

"What misery? Being alone?"

"Well, that is certainly part of it, but also…oh Niles why am I telling you this?"

"Because I asked, now go on!"

"Well anyways, every year my sister, brother and I were given a load of gifts. As great as it sounds, there was only one thing I really wanted all those years."

"What was that, C.C.?"

"My dad to come home. I wished for it, year after year, asking Santa as a child, wishing on my birthday cake, shooting stars, all that crap. But it never happened and eventually I grew to accept the fact that business was the most important thing in his life. I felt bad for Noel because he didn't have much a father figure in his life and I know boys need that sort of thing. Not that mother was much better, for she was constantly getting drunk, putting my sister and I down. As much as I pretend to love it, the high society life isn't always what it's cracked up to be. I would give all this money up to live a normal middle class lifestyle and experience a loving childhood. "

He saw the hurt in her sky blue irises as she revealed her childhood memories to him. He was happy to have her opening up to him and knowing these things about her helped him understand why she was the way she was, now.

He took her hand in his and the two of them stared into one another's eyes. Both of them reveled in one another's touch as Niles clasped her hand in between both of his.

This moment was brief however, as C.C. snapped out of her trance and became aware of what she was doing. Her feelings petrified her and she quickly got up from the chair, breaking the physical contact between them.

"Niles, it's time to change the bandages."

"Oh right."

With a pair of medical scissors that she had invested in just for his recovery, she carefully began to cut through the bandages, making sure she didn't touch his bare skin and irritate the burns. Once the majority of the bandages were cut, she was able to unwrap them completely, revealing his burnt chest for the first time.

It was worse than she could have ever imagined. Layers of flesh clearly burnt off, the area reddened severely. With a simple puncture, you could no doubt see the muscle layer that was thinly covered by only 1 or 2 layers of skin. It was a deep giant open flesh wound that, no doubt, was causing him excruciating pain.

A flood of emotions hit C.C. as she took in his appearance. That ill feeling she felt before was creeping to the surface. Tears were also about to erupt and she bit her bottom lip and squished her eyes together to attempt to suppress them.

Of course Niles' didn't need to see her cry to know it was bad, for the contorted look on her face gave it away. He figured however, that his appearance was so hard for her to look at that she needed to leave the room.

In reality, of course, she didn't think that crying in front of him would be very reassuring and so she prayed that she could leave the room smoothly without him seeing her like this.

She briskly walked to the bathroom, where she balled her eyes out for several minutes before soaking his new bandages and preparing them so that they could be wrapped around him.

Of course, he figured that she was so repulsed and disgusted by his physical injuries that she had to leave the room. He became slightly angry at this fact and debated on calling Maxwell so that he could stay with the family instead. It hurt him tremendously to think of _her_ being repulsed by his appearance, for she was the one person that that he hoped would feel some sort of attraction towards him, but he knew that he was kidding himself. He figured, if she weren't attracted to him before the accident, then she certainly wouldn't consider being with him now.

He sat, feeling extremely defeated at this thought before wondering what was taking her so long. She had been gone for at least 20 minutes. Deciding to go check on her, he slowly used the arms of the chair to brace himself and stood up. He carefully walked to the bathroom in her bedroom, making sure he didn't rub his injuries against anything while doing so.

When he got to the bathroom, he was completely stunned to see C.C. with her head over the toilet on the verge of vomiting. It made him sick to think that his appearance could have this effect on her, but he was concerned for her welfare, nonetheless.

She became self-conscious as she realized that she was on the verge of vomiting in front of him, but before she could will her body to stop, sickness overcame her and she spilled her guts right then and there.

Tears were still streaming down her face as she flushed the toilet and lifted her head up. She saw Niles' standing in the doorway and immediately covered her face, praying that he didn't see her like this, but of course, the pained look on his face told her that he had.

She tried to brush it off as a little nausea.

"Niles, I just had something earlier that didn't sit with me well. Go sit back down, I'll be out in a minute to put on your new bandages."

He just stared at her, clear concern on his face.

Her tone became more urgent as she told him again to leave the room.

"Niles, please, I'll be out in a minute, just go."

Finally, letting her know that he knew there was more to the story, he said somewhat firmly:

"Miss Babcock, don't lie to me. If you are really so disgusted by the burns or you just can't handle looking at them, I can have Maxwell find someone else to change them."

"No, I want to help you, I told you I just had something bad to eat. I'm fine" but the look of anguish on her face clearly told him otherwise as her eyes locked on his burns once more.

"Tell me the truth, C.C. I can clearly tell by the way you look at me that you are repulsed by my appearance. Is this some kind of game to win Mr. Sheffield's approval, because I am beginning to wonder?"

The tears continued to pour from her eyes as she processed his hurtful words. He immediately felt remorseful as he saw her react this way.

"You really think that is why I am letting you stay here? You really think that little of my character, Niles…"

"Well, what am I supposed to think…"?

He stopped in mid sentence as his eyes darted to the mirror in her bathroom. C.C. was standing next to him as the two of them stared at his appearance in the mirror.

"I knew it hurt excruciatingly, but…Oh God", he groaned, emotion suddenly coming over him as he realized the extent of his physical injuries. Tears began to pour out of his cerulean eyes as he saw himself for the first time.

He continued to stare at himself as the tears streamed down his face.

"It hurts so bad", he whispered through clenched teeth before collapsing on his knees and putting his head in his hands. Of course, he clearly meant more by this statement than physical pain.

C.C. was still in tears as she saw him have his breakdown. It was even more difficult to see his reaction than the actual burn itself. It pained her so much to see him this way, but she knew that she had a duty to fulfill and she would be his support system every step of the way. So, she quickly wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand, moved in front of him and squatted down eye level with him.

She lifted his chin up so that their eyes met before speaking.

"I know it does. But things will get better, do you hear me?"

He just stared into her soft blue irises, suddenly slightly mesmerized by the close contact.

"Niles, c'mon to the living room and I'll put on your new bandages."

He slowly stood up and they headed to the other room after C.C. gathered the necessary supplies.

He sat down with his back arched as C.C. prepared to wrap him with fresh bandages.

"Niles, could you stand up?"

"Sure."

He stood up and she began to apply the bandage, starting at his lower back. She was careful not to irritate his burns as she continued to secure the bandages around his abdomen and up his chest.

Although his burns hurt tremendously, his heart pumped wild at their close proximity. As she wrapped the bandages around his chest, her blonde locks brushed against his neck and it took all the strength he could muster not to lightly purr in pleasure at the contact.

"All done."

"Thank you…Miss Babcock?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For doubting your intentions."

"Forget about it. Do you need anything?"

"Wow, I never thought _you_ would be asking me that question."

"Yeah, well get used to it because we have a long road ahead of us."

They smiled at one another, meeting each other's gaze. It was getting late and the two of them were both physically and emotionally drained at this point. The two of them headed to their bedrooms and fell asleep almost immediately after hitting the sheets. Their dreams were filled with thoughts of one another as they both slept soundly that night.

This first day together would be the first step they would take together not only on the way to Niles' recovery but unknowingly to better understanding of one another as human beings. With this understanding, these two would be well on their way to finding one another.


	6. Surprise, Surprise!

_**A/N: Hi! This chapter is somewhat happier. I figured this story needed a little cheeriness so I threw it in there. Anyways, thanks to Kittensbreath, LaurenLaneLover, Lucky Starz, ElectraE and rx9872 for reviewing chapter 5.**_

Chapter 6 - Surprise, Surprise!

It was Christmas day. The last couple days at the penthouse had been quite emotional for both C.C. and Niles. Niles still wasn't totally used to the idea that his entire chest and torso would never look the same again. With this fact in mind, he figured any smidgeon of a chance that he had at a romantic relationship with any woman before the accident was completely wiped away, now.

The pain wasn't terribly bad this Christmas morning because C.C. had given him a large dose of pain medicine after he woke up in writhing in agony just a few hours ago.

As completely depressed as he felt about his current condition, he wanted to spend Christmas on a happier note. He knew that C.C. wouldn't be up to the cheeriness that this holiday involved because of the heartbreak she had been through in the past.

This year, however, he had a plan that would change that. Hopefully, his efforts would work and she wouldn't become livid at the fact that he had gotten involved in her personal life.

…

C.C. Babcock rolled onto her side in her queen-sized bed. She rubbed her eyes before her vision became clear as she looked at the big red numbers on her bedside alarm clock. It was 10:00 am, much longer than she usually slept.

Normally, she would have scolded herself for staying in bed for so long, but she figured since it was Christmas and nobody else would be working she might as well stay in bed a little longer.

With that thought in mind, she rolled back over, snuggled up in her covers and closed her eyes, hoping to fall back asleep and if she was lucky, have a sweet dream about a certain domestic.

Just as she was on the verge of entering her sleepy slumber once more, she heard a knock on her bedroom door.

She let out a groan of displeasure before sitting upright in her bed.

"Miss Babcock, get up!"

"Do you need something, Niles?"

"No."

"Then let me sleep in peace and this miserable day will be over soon enough", she grumbled miserably before slipping down under her covers once more.

"C'mon, Miss Babcock, don't sleep your life away, get up!"

"Ugggghhhhh" she groaned again before changing her position once more.

"Alright, I'm coming in", he whispered, but of course she didn't hear him in her groggy state.

He took her in as her eyes were closed. Even attempting to fall asleep, she looked so peaceful, not the usual fiery hellion that she was on a daily basis. He figured he could get used to waking up next to her like this, but he figured it would never happen.

In the meantime, he would enjoy taking a mental picture of her like this for the short time that he stood in her doorway.

Mental image noted, he slowly walked toward his object of affection. He lightly laid his hands on her covered shoulders before lightly shaking her.

"Miss Babcock, please wake up."

She grunted again before pulling the covers over her head and turning her back towards him.

"You've asked for it, Babcock!"

With that said, he briskly walked toward her bathroom and grabbed a clean soap dish. He turned the faucet on lightly and filled the dish with water before walking back towards her. He forcefully dumped the water on top of her, making sure he hit her in the face and slightly wetting her highlighted locks.

She slowly removed the covers from over her body. Even with pink flannel pajamas, this woman looked incredibly sexy to him. This with the combination of the water droplets on her cheeks and the slight dampness of her hair was causing his heart to race and both his heads to spin as he imagined what exactly was under those clothes.

The look on her face, however, caused a shiver to run up his spine. Her eyes were full of fire, her lips were pursed and her arms were crossed as she gave him a look so menacing that if Niles didn't know any better, would say it could kill.

"Butler Boy, you've just crossed the line."

Although he knew she was angry, he couldn't help it as his lips curled up into a crooked grin. He lived for the daily fire that she displayed.

"I'm surprised you didn't melt, Babcock."

"Oh you've asked for it, Merry Maid!"

She quickly threw her legs over the side of her bed before standing up. She wasn't sure what came over her as she started to chase him around the living room, kitchen, and dining area of her penthouse. Normally, she would have reprimanded herself for acting in such a childlike fashion, but for some reason she felt completely full of life as she continued to run after him around her apartment.

The annoyance that she had felt moments ago turned to bliss and she let out big sultry laughs as she continued to chase him.

Truth be told, this whole cat and mouse like game they had going on just now was turning him on. He reveled in the fact that he was being chased by Babcock. He would, most likely, let her catch him soon enough.

He stopped in the doorway of his bedroom before letting her win. As she caught him, she put her hands around his neck, pretending to choke him, but being careful not to make serious contact with his burns. Although his neck appeared normal, she could feel the roughness and minimal scarring that the burns had caused. It didn't bother her, however, for she realized that she was just thankful to have him standing in front of her, alive, at this very moment.

She released his neck from her grasp and let her hands fall to her sides. The two pairs of blue eyes bored into one another as Niles' right hand took hold of her forearm.

Their faces were mere inches apart. Breathing became heavy between the two of them, as they were both mesmerized by the sudden close proximity. C.C. could feel her cheeks become flushed as his breath lightly brushed her cheeks. She felt herself inching closer and beginning to close her eyes as the two of them were in this trance like state.

The lips inched closer and closer together mere millimeters away from one another before C.C. broke out of her reverie and backed away.

"Uh….Niles….I think I need to….uh….call Maxwell…about….our musical….", and before he could get a word in edgewise, she ran to her bedroom and shut the door behind her.

She sat on the floor of her bedroom with her back to the door. Her face was still slightly flushed and her breathing still heavy as she sat there pondering what had _almost_ happened. She knew that she had significant feelings for this man, on a good day she would classify them as love, but most days she didn't know how to describe them for one minute she wanted to wring his neck and the next minute she wanted him to make love to her right then and there on the cold hard kitchen floor.

Not being able to rationalize her feelings in her own mind petrified her to no end.

Feeling a little hot and bothered, she decided to take a shower hoping to relieve these feelings and shake what just happened from her mind. But as she let the water run down her creamy white skin, she touched the area on her forearm that Niles' had grabbed only moments earlier. She was ravished by his touch at that moment and with this thought in mind she ran her hands down her body imagining what it would be like to have _Niles_ doing this to her.

She stepped out of the shower and patted herself dry. As hard as she tried while in the shower, the thoughts of Niles still lingered in her mind and clouded her thoughts every second she let her mind wander.

She grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants and slipped them on before leaving her bedroom. She was stunned to see Niles dressed in one of his nicest suits, clean shaven and sporting a red and green Christmas tie.

He drank her in as she entered the room. He loved seeing her in simple attire and was completely turned on by her wet hair as she walked into the room. There was something about seeing her this way. It went beyond mere physical feelings of lust. Of course he desired her in that way, but it was more than that. Seeing her out of the brash, guarded business exterior made him, in an odd way, feel closer to her. Observing her in her natural habitat, spending time with her in her lair made him feel, strangely, at home.

As much as he wanted to be a part of her life, he figured, now more than ever, that that possibility was extremely unlikely. The fact that she had just fled for her life just moments earlier wasn't very reassuring to him.

Before the accident he would have blamed her sudden change of heart on his station in life and nothing else. But now he wondered if she was so physically repulsed by him that the thought of being with him made her sick. He had never had physical insecurities before this accident for he considered himself to be a fairly attractive man. But after he had seen himself in the mirror days earlier, these new fears manifested his being, daily.

C.C. was completely in awe at how handsome he looked in his suit, but after a few brief seconds of taking him in, her mind kicked back into action.

"Niles, why are you all dressed up?"

"Miss Babcock, as much as I love the grunged wet hair look, I would highly recommend that you get dressed as well."

"Why? Niles! What is your game?"

"No game, Miss Babcock, I just invited a few people."

"What? I haven't had Angelique over here to clean in over a week."

"Miss Babcock, don't worry I took the liberty of straightening up a few areas when you were in the shower. Now get dressed, the guests will be here any minute now."

"Who did you invite, Niles?"

He could clearly hear the dread in her tone as she asked him this question.

"Oh just a few friends, Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield, the children and few others."

"Who, Niles? Don't toy with me!"

"That is for me to know and you to find out, Babcock!"

"You make me want to kill you with your own cleaning products, toilet brush and if it wasn't for the fact that I have to get dressed, I would march out there right now and jam the plunger right up your ass!"

She slammed the door to her bedroom before Niles let out a deep throaty laugh from deep in his chest. Although he hoped his plan would make her happy, he no doubt, enjoyed getting a rise out of her along the way.

…..

C.C. got dressed fairly quickly, slipping on a deep red cocktail dress with matching shoes. She, then, worked on her appearance, starting with drying her hair and putting on some jewelry. She then applied her makeup, foundation, powder, blush, eye primer, eye shadow, mascara and finally the careful and precise application of her red lipstick.

She smoothed her hair one last time, before taking in her appearance in the bathroom mirror. As breathtakingly beautiful as this woman was, she still had major insecurities about her appearance and she couldn't help but wonder if the dress was unflattering or too revealing, if her makeup looked caked on or if her hair looked good. She wasn't sure why all these insecurities were bubbling to the surface at this point in time, but she knew that she needed to look good for some reason.

She came out of her room just in time, for the doorbell rang just as she shut the door to her bedroom. Niles, of course, was up immediately to go answer it.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield, Miss Margaret, Master Brighton, Miss Grace. Please come in."

"Hi, Niles," they said simultaneously.

They all walked in to the penthouse and sat down on C.C.'s large black sofa. The kids and Maxwell were engrossed in conversation. C.C. sat nearby listening to them. Fran stood next to Niles.

"So, you're the one who was just burned in a fire 3 weeks ago and she still has you answering the door. Typical Miss Babcock. In all seriousness, Niles, how have you been? Are you feeling all right? Staying with Miss Babcock must not be easy for you, what made you decide to do that, we have plenty of room at the hotel."

"A new hell everyday. But seriously, C.C. has been surprisingly good to me considering our _interesting_ past. She may have a heart buried somewhere behind that stone cold exterior of hers."

"Ohhhhhh really, you think so? Well anyways, we are shooting for you to get better."

"Thank you, Mrs. Sheffield."

"Geez, Niles, enough with the formality already. Call me Fran!"

She flashed him a smile before butting into the conversation that Maxwell was having with the children. It struck her rather strange that Niles' was so…_nice_ when talking about Miss Babcock. She even laid out a perfect subject for him to bash her and he didn't take it.

_Oy, these traumatic experiences do strange things to people!_

They all sat around in the living area of Miss Babcock's penthouse telling stories and laughing together. Although C.C. was trying to enjoy herself, she couldn't help but let her past misery creep to the surface this Christmas Day. She felt as if she could never truly enjoy this holiday.

With this thought in mind, she pretended to listen as Fran told some childhood story about a disaster during Hanukkah. Hurt was etched on her face and captured deep in her eyes at she sat there trying ever so hard to enjoy herself.

Niles could clearly see her feelings as sat there with the group. He wanted to take her in his arms and tell her everything would be all right but he could never do that in front of the Sheffields and most likely wouldn't even consider doing it anyways out of fear of rejection. He just hoped that the little plan that he concocted a day earlier would work.

As he pondered this, the doorbell rang again. This time, C.C. went to go answer it. She slowly opened the door to her penthouse apartment and was completely stunned at who she saw on the other side.

"Daddy", she said, her voice seemed to be caught in her chest.

"Hello Kitten! I'm so happy to see you, and look, I brought a few others with me."

Stuart Babcock turned to his side to open up the view for C.C. Along with her father were her brother Noel and her sister D.D.

C.C. stood there completely in shock, for it was the first time in years that she had seen them together. Slowly, a smile crept to her lips and she invited them all inside.

C.C. was a little peeved that Niles would get involved in her personal life but the fact that he had thought about her enough to get her father to come quickly made any grievance she had against him fade away.

It was great to see her family together and they seemed happy as they chatted with one another in the living area of the penthouse.

As happy as she was, she suddenly realized that a very pertinent part of Christmas was missing.

She briskly walked over to Niles, leaned down and whispered somewhat firmly into his ear.

"Niles! I am ecstatic that you invited all these people to my apartment without my previous knowledge, but did you expect me to cook for them or were _you_ planning on cooking for them?"

He felt her breath his ear and it sent shivers down his spine and his heart began to pump wild. He didn't want her to see him become flustered, so he took a few seconds to gather his composure before turning to face her.

"Miss Babcock, do you honestly think that I would invite all these people to your house and not prepare food? If you had bothered to check your refrigerator this morning, you would have noticed that I took the time to make several deserts while you were sleeping your life away this morning. Maxwell and I arranged for a caterer for the main courses", he flashed her smile.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang.

"I'lllllll get it!"

Fran hopped to the door and opened it up.

"Food's here! Gather round the table everyone!"

C.C. immediately stood up and helped the caterer bring in the dinner. Soon enough all the food was at the table and everyone was enjoying their dinner. Surprisingly, the Babcocks were actually civil to Fran and everyone seemed to get along quite well.

After dinner, Niles pulled out the deserts he made. Cheesecake, red velvet cake and cherry pie were the options they had to choose from. Fran, of course, had a sliver of all 3. Most of the others picked their favorite.

"This pie is absolutely amazing", Stuart Babcock said with a smile.

"Made by the one and only, sir", Niles said with pride.

They finished their desserts and talked a while longer before leaving the mansion. C.C. said her individual goodbyes to the Sheffields and then her family members. She hoped that they could spend time together like this sometime in the future, but she didn't count on it. She was, however, happy that she had had the opportunity to see them all together this Christmas.

"Well, that went well."

"You know, Niles, I have every reason to kill you for getting involved in my personal affairs. But, the truth is, I'm glad you did. Thank you, this has been, without a doubt, the best Christmas I've had in a while, or ever for that matter."

"I figured even the ice queen could use a little warmth in her life."

The two of them chuckled together and Niles flashed her a smile. However, that smile was short lived, for his burns were starting to pain him again. He clenched his teeth together as the medicine he had earlier had warn off.

C.C. was up in a second and she immediately gave him another dose of pain medication.

"Isn't it about time to change your bandages?"

"Oh, not now!" he pushed through clenched teeth.

"Niles, they have to be changed, I'll prepare them. That should give enough time for the pain medicine to kick in, somewhat."

As much as he wanted to fight her, he knew she was right and so he shook his head, defeated.

She gathered gauze and bandages and soaked them. Niles took off his suit coat and undid his tie, but for some reason, left his shirt buttoned as he sat there.

C.C. finished preparing the bandages and Niles stood up for her. She walked over to him. She began to unbutton his shirt and although it was strictly for medical reasons, she was excited by it, nonetheless. She slowly slipped the button down over his shoulders, her fingertips lightly grazing his shoulder blades. If she weren't so worried about hurting him, she most likely would have noticed him lightly vibrate sounds of pleasure as her fingertips brushed against him.

She grabbed the medical scissors and took off the bandages. She had become more efficient at this process over the last couple of days and she quickly wrapped on his new bandages, making sure they were just the right tightness. When she completed the wrapping, she ended up in front of him. The two were mere inches apart again. She rested her hand on his shoulder before speaking.

"All done", she could barely get it out as she became flustered due to their close proximity.

"Thank you, Miss Babcock."

He put his hand to her cheek and let his fingertips linger there. As if under some sort of spell, her other hand grasped his and the two of them remained like this for close to a minute before snapping out of their trance.

Out of the trance, Niles could see that C.C. was flustered by her red cheeks. He briefly put his hands to his own cheeks and they felt hot to the touch. He wondered if his cheeks looked the same as hers.

C.C. had run to her room and shut the door as soon as the contact had been broken. Two close calls with him on the same day. She had to get away because she didn't want her desires to hinder his recovery process, not to mention she wasn't sure if she was ready for him to know her true feelings.

She brushed her teeth, slipped on her pajamas and crawled into bed after shutting off the lights. Of course, her mind wandered to Niles and she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to have him as hers.

Little did she know, that he was in bed that very same moment wondering the exact same thing.


	7. Operation Memories

_**A/N: First of all, Happy Birthday to Daniel Davis! Shout outs to Lucky Starz, LaurenLaneLover, bogiedevil, Kittensbreath, ladybrin, and ElectraE for reviewing chapter 6. This chapter is a little different from any of the others I have written. I won't deny that it is strange but I hope you like it, just the same!**_

Chapter 7 – Operation Memories

January 27th Skin Graft Procedure #1:

It was the first operation in a series of four procedures that Niles would need to go through in order to speed up his recovery process. Although Niles appeared completely calm and collected, he was clearly nervous about the procedure. He had done his fair share of research on the procedure and although it was considered "low-risk", he still couldn't help but think about all that could possibly go wrong. He could suffer complications from anesthesia, his burnt areas could reject the donor cells from the other parts of his body or the burnt areas could become infected from prolonged exposure. He didn't like the sound of any of these possible complications but his mind couldn't help but focus on them as C.C. Babcock helped him into the hospital to check in at the front desk.

Their commute to the hospital moments earlier had been relatively silent. Although C.C. would never voice her feelings, she, too, was a ball of nerves as she thought about Niles being subjected to another stay at this hospital. If he was anything like her, he must have cringed at the thought of being forced to stare at those whitewashed walls and inhale the smell the strong disinfectant they used to keep the place as germ free as possible.

Her mind also couldn't help but wander to the risks that this procedure entailed. One wouldn't consider C.C. Babcock an optimistic person and since Niles had been recovering so smoothly, she couldn't help but think that something was bound to go wrong eventually.

As petrified as she was, however, she would in no way show these feelings to Niles, for she knew that she need to reassure him that everything would be okay. She grabbed his hand in hers for the remainder of the drive hoping that she could somehow take away any fear that he had about the surgery. They quickly glanced at one another and C.C. even managed to flash him a simple, but warm smile before shifting her eyes back to the road for the remainder of the drive.

After checking in that the front desk and waiting for a short period in the hospital waiting room, they were approached by two doctors, one in which they had met during Niles previous stay in the hospital, the other one, they'd never met. The familiar one spoke.

"Good morning, Mr. Brightmore. Are you ready to begin?"

"As ready as I'll ever be Doc."

"Well I can assure you, Mr. Brightmore, that you are in good hands. I have done this procedure hundreds of times."

"Glad to hear it Doc. Let's get this show on the road."

C.C. could clearly see that he was nervous and she desperately wanted to hug him. However, an embrace would no doubt irritate the burns and so she instead took both his hands in hers and held them tight while gazing into his eyes.

"Niles, don't worry about a thing. I'll be here when you wake up."

He smiled lightly before heading down the hall with the two doctors.

Soon enough, he was prepared for surgery, stripped of his garments, on the operating table and hooked to an IV that was injecting him with anesthetic. In no time, he was out and the doctors began taking the necessary skin cells from his unaffected areas, hoping to provide a little more coverage to his extremely burned upper body.

Under anesthesia, Niles mind began to wander and he was lost deep in his sleep…

_He walked forward slowly, taking in everything about his surroundings. He was in a big green pasture, speckled with a few small patches of pastel colored flowers. The wind blew lightly and the few trees he saw hundreds of feet away lightly danced in the breeze. _

_He was dressed in comfortable clothes, dark denim jeans and a plain white cotton t-shirt. There were no shoes on his feet and he could feel soft green grass beneath him as he continued to walk forward. It was real grass, not the sod they used in the squared out plots of land and residential neighborhoods where each house was no more than 15 feet away from the one next to it. _

_He realized after a few minutes of walking that this beautiful countryside was familiar to him. He had played there on countless occasions as a child. _

_In the blink of an eye, he saw something else familiar. He was approached by a man who was about 30 years his senior. He was instantly sickened, however as he realized just who it was._

"_Oh God, am I dead?"_

"_Of course not my boy! I am just here as a guide, making sure you make the right decisions."_

"_Uncle Martin, as happy as I am to see you after your sudden death a few years earlier, I must say, I don't need any help in making decisions."_

"_Niles that is where you are wrong! I fear that you are heading in the same direction as I."_

"_How do you figure? I am a butler and you pursued a career in the circus. I don't see how our lives are parallel."_

"_My boy, this had nothing to do your career and station in life. The matter I wish to discuss with you is much more important."_

"_Martin, why are you being so cryptic, could you just cut to the chase."_

"_How about I show you what I mean, son."_

_They stood next to one another as the scenery changed around them. Niles immediately recognized the setting he was placed in._

"_Niles, my boy, does this strike you as familiar."_

"_Yes, of course, it was the day Miss Babcock quit. I remember it perfectly. Exactly what I was doing and everything she said to him, verbatim."_

"_What else can you tell me about this day?"_

"_It turned out to be one of the worst days of my life."_

"_Why was that?"_

"_Well, Mr. Sheffield wasn't too thrilled and he took his anger out on everyone in the house later that day."_

"_Niles, my boy, you are how old now, almost 50. Surely you have seen a number of days where Maxwell Sheffield has been absolutely furious and yet you classify this day as one of the worst in your ENTIRE life. Surely, there is more to the story."_

"_Of course there is. As stubborn as I am about voicing my feelings, I have to admit it was utterly unbearable without her in my life."_

"_Miss Babcock, you mean?"_

"_Yes. I have been aware of my feelings for her over the years but I have never been able to voice them. I figured maybe they would go away if she left, which is why my initial reaction when she quit was relief, but as the days went by I felt like half of me was missing as worked around the mansion. The house didn't even seem complete without Miss Babcock barging through the door. It was a void in my life that I never even thought possible until she was no longer apart of my daily routine. I tried to fill the void with food and I probably gained at least five pounds the few days she was gone. You could imagine my relief and utter happiness when she came back."_

"_Oh yes, you seem to care about this woman a great deal. Do you have any idea why she came back?"_

"_Because Mr. Sheffield offered her a higher position and more ownership in the company, of course."_

"_Yes that may seem like the reason, but there is more to it than that, I can assure you. Life has a strange way of leading you to do things for more than what meets the eye."_

"_Think about, Niles, she's back in your life. Just think about it."_

"_I don't understand what you mean?"_

"_You will soon enough, my boy."_

_And before Niles could say anything else, his uncle and the scenery around him slowly faded away and Niles was left alone pondering what he meant by all that._

The doctors had finished Niles' first skin graft procedure several hours ago. C.C. sat in a chair in the next room waiting for Niles to wake up. Slowly, she saw his eyes flutter open. He was absolutely mesmerized when he opened his eyes, for the first thing he saw were the sparkling sky blue irises of C.C. Babcock. She appeared almost angelic as she looked down upon him, although slight concern was etched on her face.

"Niles, how are you feeling? The doctor said the procedure went splendidly!"

"I little sore, but other than that, I am great. I'm really glad you're here!"

"Don't worry, Niles, I'm not going anywhere."

…

February 18th Skin Graft Procedure #2:

Niles had recovered rather well with absolutely no complications from his first procedure. He had stayed at the hospital for a few days after the procedure and then spent the remainder of his time back at Miss Babcock's penthouse. After each procedure, a fraction more of surface area would be covered and hopefully Niles' scarring would be minimized somewhat. Although the procedure was expected to cover up some damage, in no way would Niles upper body ever be restored to normal. Niles was aware of this fact, but still had a hard time accepting it.

Niles was, again, brought into the hospital by C.C. and the doctors repeated the same procedure as before, putting him under anesthesia before beginning the process of skin transfer.

Niles' mind once again shifted into an alternate reality.

_He was again in another familiar place that he frequented as a child. It was a small pond that shined when the sunlight shone on the ripples him and Maxwell created when skipping stones. Although it was tiny, one would say it was the center of attention, for vast amounts of large oak trees and numerous flowers circled around it. _

_This was a place where both Niles' and Maxwell relaxed as children and teenagers. Niles would come here to get away from the hustle and bustle of his job and Maxwell would come here to escape the family expectations of being a member of the high and refined society group._

_Once again, as Niles gazed into the still water of the shining pond, he was approached by his Uncle Martin._

"_Niles, my boy, glad to see you once again. There is so much more you need to see."_

_Before Niles could get a word in edgewise he was taken into another setting. In this new place, he saw C.C. Babcock, dressed in yellow, sitting in a chair with extreme worry etched on her face. From the red puffiness of her eyes, it was clear that she had been crying. She, then, stood up and paced around the room. Obviously, she was desperately worried and concerned._

"_Niles, do you have any idea when this is?"_

"_I could venture a guess. I suffered a mild heart attack a couple of years back. I can't remember too much from that day, but I remember her, for she was the last person I saw before I was brought to the hospital before the blockage was cleared. I remember what she wore that day, that beautiful cream colored suit. As much as I adore the fiery hellion of a woman she is on a daily basis, I couldn't help but notice that this particularly suit made her appear softer, somehow. Maybe that is why it stuck out so strongly in my mind."_

"_So, you suffered a heart attack a couple years back? I would classify that as a life changing experience, wouldn't you say, and yet you still remember the outfit she wore on the first day she saved your life. It is obvious that you have strong feelings for this woman, my boy. Care to explain to me why you have not acted upon them?"_

"_I have tried to show her a few times…"_

"_Being subtle doesn't work with two individuals as stubborn as you. Be up front with her."_

"_But what if she doesn't feel the same way? We are from two different worlds, don't you see. I am sure she doesn't care about me!"_

"_Are the actions from what I just showed you the actions of someone whose does not care?"_

_Before Niles could answer him, he was gone once again and everything slowly faded away._

Same as before, C.C. Babcock sat in his room, waiting for him to wake and sure enough, his eyes fluttered open and he was delighted to see her sitting next to him.

"Niles, I am so glad to see you are awake. You're halfway done with these procedures now."

"I know, I can't believe it and truth is, I am in less pain after this one than the first one."

"Glad to hear it."

"Miss Babcock, its nice, seeing your caring side."

"Yeah…well don't get used to it Butler Boy."

….

March 15th Skin Graft Procedure #3:

"Mr. Brightmore, I am glad to see you are doing well after the first two grafts. I am optimistic that these next two procedures will go smoothly as well."

"That's good news. Physically, how will I look?"

"To be frank, those burns were quite severe so scarring will be evident, but these operations will minimize it some and your upper body will feel much more normal to the touch once you've healed completely."

"I'm ready for my next operation."

"Right this way."

Soon enough, Niles was under anesthesia and his mind began to drift once more…

_He was back in the pasture that he loved to run around as a child. Once again, his Uncle Martin approached him._

"_Niles, nice to see you again. Did I ever tell you that you were the favorite out of the two children my sister had? Don't tell your brother!"_

"_I wouldn't dream of it! I'm still confused however, as to why I keep seeing you. I don't understand what is so bloody important that you keep entering my mind as I get my skin removed from one part of my body and put on the other."_

"_Well, I hope you understand my motivation soon enough. My work is nearing its completion."_

"_When, exactly do you plan on ending this craziness?"_

"_If you are as clever as I think you are, Niles my boy, then you will know soon enough when my work here is done."_

_With that, the surroundings changed and Niles' was in another familiar area._

"_I'm sure you remember this, seeing as it happened somewhat recently."_

"_Of course, I made the call. I felt such remorse that day. C.C. had always been such a strong and stoic person, so you could imagine my shock when I saw her breakdown like that. Oh, I missed her so much when she was at 'the place'. It was the first time I questioned what sort of effects my insults had on her. I never thought about it before that point. I've had feelings for her as long as I can remember. I figured it was just a game and that maybe I could get her attention. What I said and what I actually meant were two different things. I guess I was afraid to be straightforward."_

"_Niles, it's not too late to change that."_

"_How can you even say that? God, I don't understand you. You think it's that simple. You don't know C.C. Babcock. I can't just tell her how I feel and expect her feel the same way. Now, after the accident, I really have nothing to offer her."_

"_Niles, you really are not getting my point."_

"_Well enlighten me then!"_

"_I understand your fears of rejection but don't use your physical injuries as an excuse not to pursue happiness. Clearly by what I have just showed you, Miss Babcock has been through a great deal of physical and emotional strain over the last year. She still fights demons that haven't totally vacated her life. Out of all the people, don't you think that she would be the one to understand what you are going through? Not to mention, she is the only person who really has seen the extent of your injuries. Just saying, I think there is more to her than meets the eye."_

_With that last statement, everything faded around him and he was back to nothingness._

C.C. had been worried sick. Although the doctor said the surgery went all right, Niles was taking an extremely long time to wake up. She had the urge to check his pulse every five minutes as she sat there next to him, praying that his eyes would flutter open, confirming that he was okay.

Finally, her wish was granted, and his cerulean eyes met her sky blue ones as they slowly opened.

"Niles, you're finally awake. Welcome back."

"Oh Miss Babcock, were you worried about me?"

"No rubber maid! And don't you think any different."

He just flashed her a smile, knowing that the meaning of her words were a lot different than she let on.

….

April 8th Skin Graft Procedure #4:

It was Niles' final procedure and the doctors were extremely optimistic. It would most likely be the least painful out of the four operations he had done; for the amount of surface area left to cover was quite small.

"Mr. Brightmore, how are you feeling today?"

"Ecstatic!"

"Good, then lets get this show on the road."

They walked to the operating room, where once again, Niles put under anesthesia.

His mind began to drift once more…

"_Back at the pond again, I see. As strange as this is, I can't deny I miss this place tremendously."_

"_Niles, my boy, there you are. It's about time you understand the message I am trying to get through to you once and for all."_

_With the blink of an eye, they were yet again in another setting. It was another memory involving C.C. Babcock. Again, she was pacing, worry etched on her face, covered in beads of sweat, hair stuck to the sides of her face. Niles, didn't understand why she had no blazer on, for clearly it must have been wintertime for the others surrounding her in the waiting room had on heavy coats. _

_The nurse at the front desk opened her mouth to speak:_

"_Ummmm…. Miss Babcock, you know you really should go home and get some sleep, maybe eat something. Go home dear and get some rest. Come back in the morning. Your husband will be just fine."_

"_Ok…"_

_The memory of C.C. briskly walking to her BMW and balling her eyes out was replayed in front of Niles. No doubt, he was confused by the whole thing._

_As the memory finished replaying, they two of them were brought back to the pond that Niles cherished so dearly._

"_Husband? Miss Babcock's never been married and I would say that that it could have happened before I knew her, but I know that couldn't be true. She looks too old for this to have been a past event. Clearly, these events happened recently."_

"_Of course, they did, my boy and there is a reason why you wouldn't recognize them. It's hard to remember something when you're passed out from smoke inhalation. This, my boy, is the second time that C.C. Babcock has saved your life, in the literal sense, for I think she has kept you alive for a long time."_

"_I am still confused. I can't help but question the truth of this memory."_

"_Miss Babcock claimed to be your husband."_

"_But why, we've despised each other for years."_

"_If C.C. was hurt, and they prevented you from seeing her, wouldn't you do the same thing."_

"_Of course."_

"_Well, that's your answer."_

"_Why are you showing me all of this and what does it have to do with you?"_

"_Well, our lives are quite similar Niles, for I loved a fiery woman similar to your Miss Babcock, as well. But, I let her slip through my fingers. Don't let the same thing happen to you."_

"_You just don't understand. C.C. will not be won over easily and I am sure that she is repulsed by my appearance."_

"_Codswallop! I don't see your burns as a burden, but as a wake up call as to how quickly life can change. You've had two different occasions where your life has changed drastically and you're lucky to still be walking this planet. It could be all taken away tomorrow. Use the time you have left wisely. Don't die an old lonely bitter old Englishman like I did."_

"_Do you think she'll have me?"_

"_It wouldn't hurt to ask", he said simply and smiled._

_That was the last thing he said and everything faded away to black nothingness. _

The last procedure was complete. This would be the last visit from Niles' uncle, for his message was pretty clear. No doubt, fear inhabited Niles' entire being but he knew that he needed to at least try. He deserved that and regardless of how she felt about him, she deserved to know.

With this thought in the back of his mind, he slowly opened his eyes and was completely elated to see C.C. Babcock, once again, sitting next to him. She tried to hide it, but a huge smile lit up her face as she saw him wake up in front of her.

"Well, Niles, that was the last one. A few more days and you won't have to come back to this hospital anytime soon."

"Thank God! I have seen enough of these whitewashed walls, but I can't deny that I have learned a great deal from all of this."

"Oh, and I thought you knew it all Butler Boy", she said sarcastically.

He tilted his head, while pursing his lips and rolling his eyes at her slightly.

"I'll be relieved when I get the hell out of this place."

"Ditto! This chair is really taking a toll on me. I have an extreme crick in my neck."

"I better get the oil can."

"Shut your trap, Lysol!"

Niles just smirked at her before the door opened and a nurse came in.

"Miss Babcock, visiting hours are over."

She left the room as quick as she entered it.

"See you tomorrow Boobcock?"

"You can count on it, toilet brush!"

They smiled at one another before C.C. slowly got up and walked out of the room. Words couldn't express the relief she felt that Niles' ordeal was slowly but surely coming to an end. Recovery would take a while longer, but she was comforted by the fact that his surgeries had come to an end and gone smoothly.

As relieved and happy as she was, however, there was an inkling of dread in the back of her mind. She wondered for the first time what would happen to their relationship after Niles' considered himself ready to work again.

She loved the banter they shared on a daily basis but wondered for the first time how Niles would act, knowing that she had let him stay with her for so long. Would he feel obligated to her? Would things become awkward between them? She never pondered _these_ possibilities before.

Lost in her thoughts, she continued down the elevator, through the hospital doors and into her BMW.

She pondered her relationship with her supposed nemesis and what would become of it.

She realized, just then, as she made her way home that she wasn't really sure what she wanted to happen between them. One thing she did know, however, was that her daily happiness was dependent upon his presence.


	8. Through Thick and Thin

**A/N: Sorry I have not updated in a while! School and work have been crazy. Anyways, thanks to LaurenLaneLover, Vee22, Lucky Starz, Kittensbreath, ElectraE, ladybrin, rx9872, Iluvonelife, and lynnylou31 for reviewing chapter 7. Also special thanks to SamandDianefan10 for the lovely inspiring message. These are the types of things that keep me writing. Quick warning, a few little M descriptions, nothing major. Anyways, I hope you all continue to read and enjoy my story. And remember to click that little link at the bottom and leave some feedback!**

The air between Niles' and C.C. was quite strange as the two of them exited her BMW and headed into the apartment building. Neither one of them was sure what to make of the silence that hung between them as they entered the elevator and headed up to her penthouse. Things were clearly different between them as Niles' was far along in his recovery process and truthfully wouldn't physically need C.C. to help him much longer.

As the silence continued to loom between them, however, emotions ran high among the both of them. Niles continued to playback the visions that he had under anesthesia. _Is it the right time? What am I supposed to do, just spit it out? 'Oh Ms. Babcock, I love you! I hope you love me too!' Honestly, will that really yield to results I am hoping for? I most certainly don't think so. _

He continued to ponder just how he would go about expressing his true feelings to his supposed nemesis. If he would have known the conflict sprinting around in her mind, it might have been easier for him to express his true feelings.

Reality was starting to settle in the mind of C.C. Babcock, as she realized that Niles' recovery was coming to an end. Surely within the next few months at the most he would no longer be in pain, and completely able to work again. Although she was completely satisfied that he had done so well, the reality of the situation was that he would no longer need her and thus be leaving her apartment soon enough.

Although nothing had romantically happened between them, she had become accustomed to his daily presence. Just knowing that he was in the next room was such a comfort to her, for she had been alone for so many years in her life. Maybe it was just the knowledge that someone was in the next room. Maybe she would have been just as content having Maxwell, Nanny Fine or the children in there for that matter. But the more she pondered this, the more she realized that it was more than just the mere knowledge of a physical presence. It was specific to Niles. Nobody else could come close to filling that void and quite frankly, she would never be ready for him to leave.

The two of them remained lost in their thoughts as C.C. fumbled through her purse to retrieve her key. She grabbed hold of it soon enough and was about to put it into the hole, when she realized that the door to her apartment was not locked.

"Niles, I locked this door before I left. I can't imagine why it would be opened."

"Babs, just walk in and you'll scare whoever is in there away, quick enough!"

As much as he pretended to think the situation was funny, it was all a front, for he was extremely worried about her welfare. Although he was somewhat sore, he was ready to protect her from any harm this stranger may try and inflict upon her.

"Niles, how can you joke at a time like this? Someone could be in my apartment and they could be armed."

"Scared are we, Babcock!"

"NO!"

"Are you sure you didn't leave the door open before you left?"

"Niles, honestly, we live in one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Do you think for a second that I would be careless enough to leave my door open?"

"Good point. Well, do you have any sort of…weapons…things to defend yourself in that purse of yours?"

"I have…pepper spray….ooooh scissors."

"Alright Babs, you hand me the scissors and you take the pepper spray. I'll go in first. I'll let you know if everything is all right."

Before she could object, he placed his hands lightly on her shoulders before shifting in front of her and slowly cracking the door open. He slowly walked into the apartment and headed into the living room.

He was greeted with a fake yet icy smile and piercing blue eyes that seemed to have nails shooting from them. These two traits coupled together sent chills up Niles' back. The intruder had a glass of scotch in one hand and a cigarette encased in slender silver holder in the other. She took one long drag before slowly releasing the air from her lungs. The gray cloud of smoke seemed to encase Niles and although it had been a while since the accident, it clearly irritated his lungs as he began having a coughing fit.

C.C. could hear him begin to cough and felt the need to help him. She slowly cracked the door open and was immediately greeted with strong waft of nicotine. She had given up smoking quite a while ago, so as she inhaled the strong pungent smell, her face contorted in disgust from the odor.

She approached the unexpected guest. The physical similarities between these two people were quite astonishing, the main difference between them being age. The uninvited individual was a statuesque bottled blonde with few gray streaks speckled on the sides. She was slightly shorter and slimmer than C.C. but walked with a similar grace and self-assurance. She took another drag of her cigarette before once again blowing a large cloud of gray smoke into the air. She emptied the butt into a spare ash tray sitting next to her on the coffee table before placing her holder into her clutch.

"C.C., darling we must catch up", she said in a way that was clearly rehearsed and not genuine.

"Hello mother, what brings you here in the middle of the afternoon", C.C. said with no enthusiasm or emotion.

"I've heard some very…..disturbing…things about my daughter and I knew that I must show up immediately, for surely they were rumors. But of course, now I see plain and clear that they are true."

"Whatever do you mean, mother?"

"You know perfectly well what I mean Chastity! I thought I raised you with a little more intelligence than that."

C.C. could barely suppress her laugh at this remark.

"Mother, I am an adult and who I let stay at my apartment is my business."

"Chastity, you know what kind of things those society vultures are saying!"

"Funny, coming from you, mother."

"Honey, I am just looking out for you. I can get over the fact that you are living with a domestic but honestly honey if you wanted to give to charity you could have a least chosen something tax deductible."

Niles was hit with a major blow to his persona as he entered the room upon B.B. Babcock's insensitive comment. The color drained from his face and any insecurity that he had felt before, was nothing compared to how low he felt now.

C.C. could see the anguish etched on his face as he took in her mother's hurtful words. She had only seen Niles genuinely hurt a few times and every time she did, her heart ached as his hurt inhabited her entire being. Those who knew C.C. Babcock were well aware that she did not feel the sting of others' pain often if at all.

"Mother, Please leave my apartment. I have heard quite enough!"

"Chastity, honey, I am just looking out for your best interests."

"Bullshit mother, you are worried about your damn reputation and I will not have you interfering in my life because you have some fear of being looked down upon by those vultures."

"Chastity, how dare you talk to me this way and accuse me of such outrageous behavior. Everything I have done has always been for the good of you, your brother and your sister."

"Oh mother, don't even get me started on the ridiculousness of that statement."

"Well, Chas, I just really don't approve of your lifestyle right now."

"Well, mother, I really don't approve of yours. Now leave my apartment and make sure the door doesn't hit you on the way out."

Knowing that she would not win in this situation, B.B. Babcock took one last swig of scotch before lighting another cigarette, placing it in her holder and taking one long drag. On her way out, she made sure to blow a large cloud of smoke into C.C.'s face before slamming the door behind her. Maybe, this was her way of getting the last word. Whatever the case may be, C.C. was clearly annoyed as she quickly swatted her hands back and forth in order to disperse the smoke cloud.

Her attention immediately turned to Niles. Look of defeat was etched on his face as he sat on her black leather sofa, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his head propped up between his hands. His normally piercing blue eyes were not so electric today as gloominess filled his retinas. As C.C. walked toward him she realized that his eyes were not only void of their normal gleam, but wet with tears.

She slowly walked over to the sofa before sitting down next to him. She slowly and rather awkwardly wrapped her arm around his back before shifting closer to him.

As dejected as he felt this very instant, he was still perceptive of the sudden closeness between them. His heart pumped rapidly from her touch, however his emotions and skepticism overcame his desire to have his way with her that very second. He needed to know once and for all what Miss Babcock's motivation was for letting him stay at her house and helping with his medical expenses. If it was a way for her prank him or win Maxwell's affection he would not have it. As grateful as he was for her help, he cared for her too much to think that her reasons for helping him were selfish or malicious. And if that were the case, he would not stand for it and would return to Maxwell Sheffield's, now renovated, mansion immediately. He sat up and turned his head to meet her eyes before speaking to her.

"Miss Babcock, why are you doing this, taking care of me? Was your mother right? Is this some kind of meaningless charity for you? What are your intentions?"

She removed her arm from his back before speaking to him, her tone revealing a slight hint of hurt.

"Niles, after all we've been through, how can you even ask me that?"

"Well is it not a valid question? Your mother just comes here and voices every fear I've had since the time I agreed to stay here."

"Well, I've done all I can to reassure you that my intentions are good. This conversation is over."

"You still haven't answered my question!"

"And I won't! I am having a hard time even looking at you right now! The fact that you are questioning my intentions...is just really offensive."

Before he could open his mouth she quickly stood up and began to walk towards her bedroom. As much as they had been through together these last 5 months, she still wasn't comfortable showing him her vulnerability.

She began to open her door in effort to hide her feelings but was forcefully spun around after he tightly grabbed her wrist. His actions would have suggested anger, although the message in his eyes was quite different. A lone tear fell down hear cheek and he proceeded to wipe it off with his thumb before speaking.

"Miss Babcock, please…don't run away this time. I think we've been doing that long enough."

"Niles, I don't think you realize how much this scares me!"

Her eyes widened slightly as she realized what was happening between them. There was no denying the electricity that flew between these two, however, as the two sets of blue eyes bore into one another.

He cupped her left cheek with his right hand before continuing.

"I know. I'm afraid too, but I have never been more sure about anything. I'll be with you every step of the way just like you have been there for me. Through thick and thin Babcock, because that is how it's supposed to be."

He cupped her other cheek before drawing her into a quick, but tender kiss. They broke apart before C.C. drew him into another deeper kiss, keeping one hand on his cheek while running the other through his sandy blonde waves and down his neck and back. He wrapped his arms around her lower middle back and pulled her close to him.

Their lips broke apart to catch their breath but they remained in one another's arms. Niles planted a loving kiss on her forehead and the two of them remained standing, secure in each other's arms for several minutes before C.C. finally spoke.

"Niles…how are you feeling?"

"Wonderful…why?"

"Stay with me…in here."

No more was spoken between them as Niles followed her into the bedroom.

They both sat next to one another on the edge of C.C.'s bed, facing each other. Nervousness, excitement, desire and love for one another etched on their faces and captured in their eyes.

They slowly shifted toward one another before C.C. gently slipped his shirt over his head. His burns were uncovered now and although they were still healing, they no longer pained him so much. Nevertheless, she was careful and only lightly ran her fingertips down his chest and abdomen before bringing her lips to his once again.

Still lip-locked, Niles unbuttoned her baby blue blouse flawlessly, for he had memorized every inch of Babcock for so long he had no problem identifying the location of each and every button. He slipped her blouse over her shoulders before running his strong hands along her cream colored arms. As their lips broke apart, Niles used this time to slowly plant kisses along her neck and shoulder blades. He was pleased to hear her purr in approval.

She removed her bra before lightly pushing him down on his back. She lightly ran her hands down his chest before slowly following the pattern with her lips. She heard him groan slightly and wondered for a moment is she was hurting him.

"Did I hurt you?"

"Yes, your touch burns me witch!"

His lips curled up into a smile before he pulled her tightly against him, her breasts pressed up against his chest, their heart beats quickening to a simultaneous rhythm. Her nipples hardened immediately. She could feel the throbbing of her core and the desire for him heightened even more so as she felt him harden against her.

As much as they desired one another, the love they made that night was not that of just ravenous lust (although no doubt they both had those fantasies of one another at some point in time). The connection between these two was one that could only be experienced by two individuals who had been through as much as Niles' and C.C. had over the course of their lives.

C.C. had never experienced both a physical and emotional connection together or separately, for that matter, with her small number of previous partners.

So as their numerous times of passionate lovemaking came to an end that, the two of them, completely spent, fell asleep in on another's arms. Niles had stayed awake longer than C.C. and had taken this time to admire the gorgeous bottled blonde he had in his arms. He used this time to memorize even more about her, running small strands of soft silky hair between his fingertips, taking in her scent and snuggling close to her. He wrapped his arms around her, spooning against her. He loved the feeling of her curvaceous lower body fit snug in the grooves his body formed, like the piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

He slowly drifted asleep with this thought in mind. How well they fit together despite all the dysfunction they had been through all these years. Or maybe that was why they fit so well together, because of it.

Whatever the case may be, he would keep the promise he made to her earlier that evening. He had been through a lot of thick and he would continue to trudge through more of it if it meant he could spend the rest of his life with this infuriating woman.

He fell asleep after making sure his broad strong arms were securely fastened around the love his life and bane of existence. And he wouldn't have it any other way.


	9. A Powerful Phone Call

_**A/N: Hello Hello readers and fellow authors! Sorry again for not updating in a while. I am sure most of you knew but for those that didn't the reason I haven't updated in a while is that I was busy, and when I say busy I mean that I went to Austin and saw Lauren Lane in God of Carnage! Needless to say it was, AMAZING! Check out EspoirDio's fanpage for my review of the show and pictures I got with her. Anyways, thanks to Kittensbreath, avagrace2888, ladybrin, Iluvonelife, rx9872, lynnylou31, and LaurenLaneLover for reviewing chapter 8. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**_

The Powerful Phone Call

Niles was awoken the next morning by the warm April sun shining through the bedroom window of C.C. Babcock's apartment. He grinned to himself as he saw the light shine down and enhance the beauty of the love of his life still sleeping next to him. He was ecstatic to know that every wonderful thing that happened the night before wasn't a dream.

She rolled around, her face turned towards him. The sunlight shone on her face gave her a glow, which made her appear more angelic than usual. He continued to gaze at her quietly in attempts not to wake her.

Eyes closed, however, she could feel his gaze upon her and she slowly opened her eyes in order to meet his. Niles grin turned into an enormous smile as he was greeted with the most beautiful eyes in the world.

"Good morning Babs!"

"Morning Butler Boy!"

He placed a loving kiss on her forehead before moving down for one last quick peck on the lips. They lovingly stared into one another's eyes for a few moments longer before C.C. shifted closer to him and removed the covers off his chest.

"How are you feeling this morning?" she asked with concern before lightly running her fingertips along his scarred up chest.

"A little sore from the surgery but other than that completely wonderful."

"Am I hurting you?"

He thought about making a sarcastic comment but was touched by the obvious look of concern on her face and decided otherwise.

Instead, he just put his hand over hers and closed the space between them before wrapping his arms around he waist. The two of them laid securely fastened to one another for a while before shifting to the upright position. The two of them sat up against her headboard hand in hand before they turned towards each other.

"Niles, I'm really sorry about what my mother said about you yesterday. I never thought about that when deciding to take care of you."

"Why did you take care of me…I mean what made you decide to take me in? You could have easily just washed your hands of everything after Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield came back."

He could see her struggling for the right words and the discomfort on her face as she tried to come up with the correct response. He wondered then, if he had pushed her too far too soon.

After all they had been through and she was still having a hard time admitting her feelings. She couldn't decide if the reason for her unwillingness to disclose had to do with the fact that he had been her enemy for so long or because she cared about him so much. What she did know however, was that she wasn't good at this sort of thing and her heart had been stomped on more times than she could count and this usually happened to her when she said too much. Needless to say, her fear to be vulnerable was justified.

"I guess I did it because…"

"Why?"

"Because….I care," she immediately shifted her eyes downward and bent her head, afraid to look at him after opening herself up to him.

He knew immediately he was making headway with her and that her admittance was extremely difficult. He felt the need to reassure her and did so by slowly lifting her chin up so that her eyes would meet his own.

He could see the fear written on her face and captured in her eyes as his blue irises met her own. He pulled her close to him, closing all the distance between them once again before whispering into her ear.

"You have no idea how long I have been waiting to hear you say that. And just so you know, I love you too Miss Babcock."

Her arms, which had been stuck at her sides just moments earlier, wrapped around him as he revealed his feelings to her. The two of them remained upright in one another's arms for several minutes reveling in one another's scent and touch before breaking apart to meet each other's gaze once again.

"Oh my God, Niles, you have no idea how scared I was that night. I couldn't bear the thought of losing you. I don't know what it was that made me feel like I needed to be at the mansion. Then I saw the smoke and I knew something was wrong…and you were there…on the floor…."

Her eyes became wet with tears as visions of that dreadful night clouded her mind. Although he hated seeing her cry, he was reassured about the authenticity of her feelings for him. His face lit up into a smile as he wiped the tears that managed to escape from her eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere, C.C." he pulled her close to him once again.

She buried her head in the crook of his neck and they sat there for several moments longer before pulling apart again.

"Miss Babcock…."

"Call me C.C. again."

She flashed him a simple smile and he returned it.

"C.C. would you like some breakfast?"

"I would love some. Can I help you?"

"I let you make the coffee. Do you think you can handle that, Babcock?"

"I'll give it a shot Rubber Maid", she said sarcastically. "You don't trust me to do anything else?"

"Not if we want to live," he laughed before flashing her a big smile and throwing the covers completely off his naked body.

She admired his backside before he slipped on one of the white terrycloth robes from her closet. She stood up with the covers wrapped around her as he turned to face her.

"Babcock, what are you doing?"

"Uh…covering up."

"Yes I see that, why are you using the comforter?"

"I don't want you to see my imperfections."

"C.C. first of all, contrary to what I have said to you in the past, I think you are the most beautiful creature to ever walk planet Earth. Secondly, if anyone should be worried about their appearance, it's me."

As if to show her, he opened his robe to reveal his scarred chest. C.C. slowly let the comforter fall down before briskly walking toward him and hungrily crashing her lips on top of his. He parted his lips for entry of her tongue and the two of them kissed each other passionately until the need for oxygen overcame them and they broke apart. She put the palm of her hand on his chest and felt the quickening of his heartbeat at her contact.

She leaned against him and felt him harden against her. She lightly stroked him and was completely turned on as he resonated sounds of approval. The robe he put on moments earlier fell down his shoulders and the two of them were in bed together once again.

The time they spent together that morning topped their previous night as the connection they had made over the last few hours that morning was that much stronger.

….

"How's the coffee coming Babcock?"

"Well, I'm having a difficult time _watching_ the pot brew it for me."

He giggled at her sarcasm as he continued to cook her an omelet. He finished it soon enough and put in on a plate for her at the table.

"Here we go, my love."

"Thank you. Oh and look, the coffee is done."

She stood up and poured herself and Niles a cup and the two of them sat at her dining room table enjoying breakfast together. It was comforting for both of them to know that the other was right across from them. Even in silence, they were both happy to know that the other one was just a foot away.

"Did you like it?"

"I've had better…just kidding, it was amazing", she flashed him a smile as he collected their plates and poured her another cup of coffee.

"So C.C…"

"I'm sorry, Niles, I just love hearing you say my first name, but please go on."

He smiled at her again before continuing.

"C.C., what would you like to do today?"

Without speaking C.C. stood up and walked over to her couch. She patted a spot on the couch in order to indicate she wanted him next to her.

He picked up his cup of coffee and sat next to her on the black leather sofa. The two of them continued to enjoy their coffee before watching their Spanish soap together with their arms wrapped around one another.

No denying that this day was strange for both of them. C.C. had been used to being alone and a workaholic for so many years of her life that she could never imagine spending a day doing nothing with a man who had made her life a living hell years before.

Similarly, Niles would have hardly guessed that him and Babcock, of all people, would be spending a bum around day together.

No doubt, however, these two wouldn't have it any other way as they sat together that afternoon and evening enjoying their soaps and just spending time together.

They sat there for some moments longer as the TV movie that they had been watching came to an end. Niles flipped the power switch of her TV remote and turned to face her.

"So Babcock…would you like to have dinner with me?"

She laughed at the silliness of their situation and the fact that he was still trying to be a gentleman and follow the status quo after all they had been through. He was slightly concerned by her response.

"Is that funny to you?"

"Sorry Niles, I just couldn't help but laugh, but of course I would love to have dinner with you."

"What was so funny?"

"I just think it's cute I guess…how you still are trying to follow tradition and be a gentleman after everything we've been through."

"Well I figure we could make an attempt at some normalcy."

"Niles, since when have we ever been normal?"

"Who says we can't start now?" He pecked her lips before drawing her into an embrace and planting a deeper kiss on her lips.

"So when and where, Butler Boy?"

"You tell me, because God knows my schedule is full", he grinned at himself.

"Tomorrow night then?"

"Great and would you invite me in after?"

"No guarantees Butler Boy", she winked at him and his insinuations.

The two of them gazed into each other's eyes for a moment before slowly migrating towards one another and becoming engrossed in another heated and passionate kiss. Just as things between them became even more heated, however, they were interrupted by the sound of the telephone ringing.

C.C. stood up to answer her cordless. Niles eyed her with curiosity.

"Hello Hello, C.C. Babcock on the line. Who is this?"

"Hello, Miss Babcock, this is Lenox Hill Hospital calling."

"Yes, what is it?"

"There seems to be some sort of issue with your payments for Mr. Brightmore's skin graft surgeries."

"What are you talking about? What issues?"

"For some reason the transaction from your account is being denied."

"How can that be? I know for sure I have a significant amount of funds in that account."

"Well, Miss Babcock we have tried running the transaction several times and have double checked the numbers and everything and I'm sorry, but it is not working."

"That's impossible! Tell them to check again! "

Niles could see her getting angry, but did not know who was on the other end of the conversation.

"Miss Babcock, I'm sorry but there must be something wrong on your end. Do you thin that you could provide an alternate form of payment?"

" NO, I will not! What incompetent nincompoop do you have working in that billing office? I don't believe this! You'll be hearing from me again! This conversation is not over with!"

With that, she angrily slammed down the receiver.

"C.C. what's wrong?"

Debating on whether or not to tell him about the billing problem, she decided against it for now.

"Nothing, just some work stuff, about renting the theatre, no biggie."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, everything is fine, Niles. C'mon, lets go to bed, I'm pretty tired."

He followed her into her bedroom and the two of them crawled into bed after stripping down.

Niles knew that something was wrong that night. Not looking at each other, the two of them both lay awake that night worrying about two different but related things.

First thing tomorrow C.C. planned on getting this mess straightened out. She finally had Niles healthy and for herself and she would let nothing stand in the way of her happiness.

Niles worried, as he lay awake next to the extremely anxious bane of his existence and love of his life. He just hoped she wasn't having second thoughts about their relationship. He had a bad feeling that there was something more to that phone call than what she was telling him and he had every intention on finding out.

Who knew that this one little 10-minute phone call had the power to create a series of rifts in their seemingly strong and extremely complex relationship?


	10. Built Up Anxiety

_**A/N: Hello Hello everyone! Excited to share this with you! Thanks to Vee22, Avagrace2888, ladybrin, rx9872, and ElectraE for reviewing chapter 9. I think I have a difficult time focusing when I write multiple chapter stories at once. For those of you who are reading both of them, would you like me to continue taking turns with updates or finish one first? If you would like me to finish one first, which one? Anyways, hope you continue to enjoy this story!**_

Chapter 10 – Built Up Anxiety

C.C. and Niles slept little the night before as the two of them worried tremendously about the phone call from the previous night. Although Niles never heard the other end of the phone call, he could tell that C.C. was on edge and knew there was more to it than she had told him.

Lost in their thoughts, they were interrupted by the sound of the alarm clock. C.C. immediately sprung out of bed, stripped down and hopped into the shower.

Niles planned on going back to work today at the Sheffield mansion, although he wasn't due there for another couple of hours and therefore didn't climb out of bed as C.C. got ready to begin the day.

Of course, the fact that he wasn't due at work for another couple of hours would give him ample time to become even more anxious and worried about the phone call from the previous night. Normally, something as a simple telephone call wouldn't phase him one bit, however, he clearly saw how it had affected C.C and he knew then and there that something was desperately wrong.

He also had other things on his mind. First of all, the Sheffields had no idea about their relationship and what it had become. Hell, Niles didn't really know how to define it yet. They hadn't really discussed in detail exactly what they were to each other. He also hadn't really thought about what would become of his living situation now that he was going back to work. Surely, he would have to move back into the mansion, right? After all, they had only declared their love for one another just a couple of days ago and as much as he absolutely adored C.C., he really didn't see it wise to move in with her so suddenly. Of course his heart told him otherwise, but his head was screaming at him to slow down.

He was also thinking about their dinner date, which was scheduled for later that evening when the two of them were finished working. He wanted everything to go perfectly and planned on acting like a complete gentleman for the entire night. This entailed paying for dinner, opening doors for her, buying her flowers, the whole nine yards.

Caught up in his concerns, he was greeted by C.C. She had just gotten out of the shower and was wearing nothing but a towel around her body and another entwined around her damp blonde locks.

Niles could feel his brain turn to mush at the sight of her like this. She walked by him in order to get to her closet. He took in the scent of her ivory scented soap, a smell, which he had recently become accustomed to as the two of them spent time entwined in her bed sheets. This alone drove him completely mad and he could feel his lower body twitch in desire as she stood in front of her closet picking out a business suit to wear for the day.

No longer able to control himself, Niles quickly threw off the covers, got up and snuck behind her before wrapping his arms around her waist and planting several kisses down her exposed neck. He was immediately turned on more so as he heard her lightly purr in pleasure at the contact.

"Niles, stop it", she said in a sultry voice which clearly suggested she wanted different.

"C.C.", he relished in the sounds of the syllables rolling off his tongue. He shifted in front of her before pulling her into a deep kiss. As wonderful as this kiss was, he could still feel that something was wrong by the tension in her shoulders.

"C.C., you're so tense."

He began to massage her shoulders before continuing.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing", but he could clearly tell that something was on her mind.

"C.C. I know something is the matter, please tell me."

She wanted to tell him, but decided against it for the moment. After all, she figured if it was just a simple mistake, then the problem might not even exist in the next few hours.

As much as she wanted to believe this, however, she had a horrible feeling that there were other forces at work when it came to the sudden discrepancy in her finances.

"Just work related, still worried about renting the theatre and casting and such."

Niles still figured there was more to the story, but decided not to push her any further.

He continued to caress her shoulder blades, causing her hair to stand on end and the subject of their conversation and worry to quickly escape her brain.

He, too, was quickly forgetting his worry as he could clearly see the effect his actions were having on Babcock.

"Niles, stop it, I'll be late for work", she giggled through the seductive smile on her face.

He pulled her even closer before leaning in to whisper in her ear. She could feel his breath against her neck, which was causing her to lose the little remaining reserve that she had left.

"Just tell him you're _taking_ care of me!"

"Interesting choice of words, Butler Boy."

"Well, we could show up _together._"

"I would like that."

She turned around to face him, the smile on her face so bright that it made him go weak at the knees.

He pulled her close to him before planting a soft kiss on her lips and slipping the towel down her curves. She slowly took off his pajamas and the two of them were entwined in her bed sheets once again.

…

After spending the remainder of the Niles' free time together, the two of them showered together before dressing for work at the Sheffield mansion.

The two of them left her bedroom together before Niles made a cup of coffee and C.C. browsed the morning newspaper. When the coffee was done brewing he poured her and himself a cup to go and the two of them headed down the elevator after first locking the apartment door.

They walked out of the apartment building hand in hand before breaking apart to climb into C.C.'s BMW.

They held hands in the car on the way to the Sheffield mansion; however, little words were spoken between the two of them. With little talk, the concerns that they had hours earlier started to consume both their minds and the bliss they felt moments earlier quickly disappeared as the reality of the situation set in.

C.C. knew that she needed to get her finances straightened out and she had every intention of making those phone calls as soon as she arrived at the house.

They showed up at the house soon enough, and Niles quickly exited the vehicle and ran to the driver's side to open the door for C.C. She chuckled at the ridiculousness of his behavior but was quite flattered by it as well.

"Is me opening the door funny to you?"

She smiled at him before explaining herself.

"You being a gentlemen is quite charming Niles, but I still can't help but laugh. After all I am the one that just drove us here and all. Not to mention, I am still not completely used to you being nice to me."

"Well, don't worry, Babs, I'm sure we'll exchange some zingers soon enough being that we are about to enter our natural habitat and all."

"In all seriousness, do you think that they'll know?"

"Know what, C.C.?"

"About us, when we enter _together._"

"I don't know, but like I said before, I wouldn't mind if they knew."

She planted a chaste kiss on his lips in order to reassure him that her feelings were mutual. Hand in hand, they rang the doorbell. Fran immediately came to answer it.

"Hi Miss Babcock, NYULES!"

She immediately pulled him into an embrace, so happy to see him that she didn't even notice the two of them holding hands just moments earlier.

Maxwell walked into the living room soon after.

"C.C. You're Late! Niles, old man, good to see you back in working order."

"Thank you sir, and Miss Babcock was late on account of me. She was has been taking wonderful care of me, sir.

Fran could see the gleam in his eye at this statement and knew immediately that something was going on between the two of them. She spoke before Maxwell could get a word in edgewise.

"Oh _really_!"

She flashed him a wink.

Maxwell was totally confused by the situation and honestly didn't have much interest in it at the moment as the pressures of work started to get to him.

"C'mon C.C., let's get to work."

The two of them left the room and headed to the office.

"So Niles, how have you been? Your surgeries went well I see. I am so glad you are back. I have missed you!"

"Everything has been wonderful. My recovery went quite well, better than expected actually."

Fran was twitching in anticipation as she was dying to question Niles about his time at C.C.'s penthouse.

"So Niles, how was it…staying with Miss Babcock? I am sure that must have been _difficult_ for you."

"C.C. has been quite supportive of my recovery. She even helped pay some of my medical bills."

"Oh so it's C.C. now? What's going on between you two?"

"Everything! Honestly, I care about her tremendously…I'm in love with her."

"OH MY GAWD. How did this happen, when did it happen?"

"Well, officially, 2 days ago, but I've had feelings for her for far longer than that."

"Oh really! Well, you certainly have a strange way of showing it, Mister!"

The two of them chuckled at her comment before separating from one another so that Niles could begin his butler duties. As much as he despised the domestic lifestyle, he was quite content and thankful that he was back on his feet and able to perform these duties at all. Again, he had C.C. to thank for this and he would do all in his power to show her how much she meant to him.

…..

C.C. got little work done before lunchtime as she continued to worry about the discrepancy with her account. She needed to figure out what was going on and she needed to do it fast. If there was one thing that C.C. was always on top of, it was her finances.

As soon as Maxwell decided it was time for lunch, C.C. made her first phone call. She called the hospital again to make sure it wasn't a mistake and was quite unhappy to find out that the transaction was still denied.

Her second phone call would be much more revealing, for she called her bank and was informed that a very large sum of money had been removed from the account in question just a couple of days earlier. The bank also informed her that the hospital had tried to collect their money and were clearly perturbed as the transaction was denied. These two transactions had occurred within a day of one another.

There were 3 other people that had access to the account in question. These people were the following: Stuart, B.B. and Noel Babcock.

Without asking the teller, C.C. was sure that it was her mother that had taken the money from her account. After all, she had just come over 2 days ago to lecture her about her life and tell her to not get involved with Niles. She probably figured out that C.C. planned on using that money in order to pay part of Niles' medical expenses.

She immediately dialed her mother's number on the cordless and waited as the phone rang. After several rings, she was greeted with the unenthused shrill voice of her mother.

"Hello. B.B. on the line."

"Hello mother. I am sure you have been expecting my phone call after what you have done."

"No C.C. after the way you spoke to me the other day, a phone call was the last thing I expected from you."

"Well, every word I have said to you was completely deserved, and as much as I could go on about your horrible behavior toward a man that I happen to care about, that is not why I called. I know good and well you withdrew the vast majority of the funds from the family account."

"C.C. what is going on with you and the _help?"_

"None of your business, I didn't call to tell you about my life. I need that money back and I need it now."

"I never took that money out. You should probably talk to Noel about that."

"Why would Noel need the money?"

"Maybe if you would pay attention to your family and what's important instead shacking up with your employer's butler you would know."

"Tell me mother!"

But before C.C. could continue to press her mother for more information, she was off the line. Now in addition to worrying about Niles' medical expenses, there was something going on with her brother that required him to need a substantial amount of money and fast.

She had hoped that these phone calls would solve her problems, but now it seemed as if they had just gotten worse. She needed to call her brother and was about to do so before Maxwell came back into the office. She knew that he would give her hell for not getting back to work immediately especially considering she came in late this morning.

She definitely needed to call him as soon as the workday was over, for she just had a feeling that something was definitely wrong. Considering her gut is what brought her to the mansion the night of the fire, she generally stuck with it.

Maxwell handed her some scripts to read and few phone numbers of different investors to call once she picked a script out of the narrowed down few he had handed her.

She was having a hard time focusing on her work and became even more distracted as Niles came in the room with tea for both her and Maxwell. He could immediately feel her anxiety and knew something was desperately the matter. Ignoring Maxwell's presence, he sat down next to her on the green leather sofa and wrapped his arm around her.

He slowly pulled her chin up in order to meet his eyes before whispering to her.

"C.C., what is wrong? I can tell you are on edge. Please tell me."

"I'll tell you in detail later once I find out myself. I just know that something is going on with my brother."

"Is it bad? Is he alright?"

"I honestly have no idea, my mother didn't tell me much other than the fact that she clearly does not support my relationship with you."

Maxwell looked up at them suddenly with a raised eyebrow, clearly in complete and utter shock at what he thought he just heard.

"I'm sorry…"

"Niles, there's no need to apologize. Listen, I better get back to work, but I am very excited for our date tonight."

"Me too, I have made reservations at that new Italian restaurant that just opened up."

"I heard the food there is wonderful."

"Yes, I heard the same. Well I'll let you get back to work."

He kissed her on the cheek before walking out of the room and returning to his daily duties.

C.C. turned to face Maxwell and was met with a face of complete and utter shock as his mouth was hanging open.

"C.C. what the bloody hell is going on?"

She giggled to herself before speaking.

"Oh you mean Niles and I, yeah we are an item if you know what I mean."

"Yes I heard. I am happy for you, but you must understand my shock."

"Trust me, I completely understand and if you had told me that Niles and I would be together before the accident, I would have looked at you like you had 3 heads. I don't know, maybe I always knew that I had feelings for him, deep down, but it took something so drastic to realize them."

"Well, I am happy for you C.C."

"Thank you Maxwell."

He flashed her a small smile before the two of them continued with their work once again.

C.C. of course, had a terrible time reading through the scripts as thoughts about her brother entered her mind once again. She did her best to push through however, and was even able to secure one of the investors that Maxwell had given her the phone numbers for.

After a long grueling day, work was finally over for them both. C.C. needed to make this call, however, before she went out with Niles because she knew that if she didn't, then she would be distracted the entire evening they were out.

She decided to use Maxwell's phone since her cell phone had a low battery. She dialed her brother's number and anxiously anticipated his answer.

After several rings, he finally answered the phone.

"Hello, Noel Babcock here."

She could immediately tell by the tone of his voice that he was not well and there was something desperately wrong. She just prayed, that whatever it was, the money could fix it totally, for she couldn't stand hearing her brother sound like this any longer.


	11. Heartbreaking News, Unbearable Guilt

_**A/N: Hello Hello! I have decided to work on this story and finish it up before I finish up The Sickness of Insecurities. I actually know more about how that one is going to play out, whereas this story is more open to change. Anyways, I would like to thank rx9872, LaurenLaneLover, Lucky Starz,, ladybrin and the-reverie for taking the time to review chapter 10! Anyways, I hope you all continue to read and enjoy this story.**_

Chapter 11 – Heartbreaking News, Unbearable Guilt

"I'll have the Baked Ziti."

"And for you ma'm?"

"The same."

"Great, I'll bring that right out for you as soon as possible."

"Thanks." Niles said nicely. CC, on the other hand was completely silent as the waiter walked away to put in the order.

"C.C., you've been distant all night. What is the matter? Please talk to me. "

As he looked into her eyes, which appeared void of life and were focused on some unrecognizable point on the wall, he could clearly see that something was desperately wrong, for they appeared wet, although no tears had actually fallen.

She continued to focus on the wall in front of her, completely unaware that Niles had spoken to her.

Niles lightly placed his hand on hers, which was resting on the table.

She was shaken out of her thoughts somewhat from the sudden contact, as she was made aware that he was trying to get her attention.

"C.C. what's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why."

"Because I would like to believe it isn't true. I would like to believe that my life is simple and that you and I are just out enjoying ourselves. Just, no worries. But it seems as if as soon as one person I care about finally gets better and I feel like I have room to breathe, another person I love is struck with a blow!"

"C.C. what's wrong?"

"Not now!" The tone in her voice had become loud and desperate. Others in the restaurant had turned to look at them.

The tears, which, she had been fighting the entire time were slowly starting to fall now as her blue irises were met with his own. The look on his face showed a variety of emotions including love, concern and the need to protect her from whatever it was that made her feel this way.

He scooted his chair, which had been across from her at the table, so that it was right next to her own before using his napkin to wipe the tears flowing down her cheeks.

Without even asking her, he knew that she wanted to leave, for she hated showing her innermost emotions to others, particularly complete strangers.

The waiter came by the refill their drinks and Niles asked him to wrap their dinner up in to-go boxes.

C.C. did the best she could to hide her tears, but was unsuccessful in this attempt as everyone in the restaurant could hear her uncontrollable sobs. Niles did the best he could to protect her from this by pulling her close to him, her head nestled in the crook of his neck and his palm protectively cradling the back of her blonde head of hair.

He used his other hand to console her, rubbing her back lightly as the two of them sat there waiting for the waiter to bring their food.

After about 15 minutes, he was out with their food and the bill, which Niles paid. He whispered in C.C.'s ear that their food had come and she slowly stood up and headed out of the restaurant, making sure she made no eye contact with the other guests. Niles followed close behind with the boxes of Ziti.

Although they had used her car, Niles insisted on driving them to the restaurant. Earlier, C.C. had given him a little trouble about it, insisting that it wasn't necessary. Now, however, she had little fight in her as Niles unlocked the doors so they could enter the vehicle.

The drive that the two of them had shared earlier to the restaurant had been silent, although it was no comparison to the somber mood that hung in the car on this drive home.

At every traffic light, Niles would immediately turn and check on her and every time he did, he saw the same lifeless expression on her face. It sickened him tremendously to see her this way, so defeated. It was certainly not the C.C. Babcock that he knew and loved so much.

Seeing her this way made him realize that whatever it was that she had found out today must be very serious, for he had never seen her completely devoid of all her normal fire.

He parked her car and the two of them headed up to her apartment building without speaking to one another. They approached her apartment door before Niles fumbled with the keys and opened it up.

C.C. dragged herself in the door before putting her purse on the table and dropping down on her leather sofa. Her tears had slowed down and she resorted to staring at her reflection in the TV as Niles brought their Styrofoam boxes of Ziti along with silverware and set them on the table.

"Niles, why do bad things always happen to good people? I mean, look what happened to you! And now this! I just don't understand it. My brother is probably the best person in my entire family. He's the only one of us that has managed to make his marriage work along with raising a family and having a stable career. I just don't understand how this could happen to him?"

"C.C., what's wrong with your brother?"

"He has cancer. Leukemia, I have to go this weekend to Illinois and get tested to see if I am a match to be a bone marrow donor. Apparently, siblings are usually the most likely to match. My whole family has been tested and none of them matched. They even tested his little girl, my niece. I feel like I'm his only hope and even if I am a match, there is no guarantee that the treatment will work."

"Oh C.C…God…I'm sorry."

He hated seeing her this way, for he knew her and her brother were quite close. The fact that he couldn't fix the problem for her made it all the worse as he sat there, unsure of what to say next.

He did all he could think of to do and pulled her close to him once again. She laid on her side, placing her head in his lap before he stroked her hair.

"Niles…could I ask you a favor…don't feel like you have to say yes…but…do you think…that…you could come with me to Illinois this weekend? It's just that, I've heard the test is painful and my other family members and I don't…."

"C.C. I wouldn't have it any other way. I would have insisted on going with you, whether you asked me or not."

He kissed her on the forehead in order to further reassure her of his complete and utter devotion to her.

They sat in silence for several minutes before C.C. finally reacquired her appetite and the two of them ate their food, in silence once again. It was one of those times in her life when just his mere presence was enough to keep her sane.

They finished up before Niles' gathered up their empty boxes and disposed of them. It was somewhat late as this point and the lack of sleep the two of them had suffered the night before was starting to catch up with them.

The two of them dressed for bed before crawling under the sheets and shifting close to one another. Being the she was emotional drained; C.C. fell asleep just minutes after hitting the mattress.

Shortly after falling asleep, Niles' was immediately awoken by the ringing of C.C.'s cordless. C.C. was in such a deep sleep, that the sound of the ringing did not wake her as Niles went to go answer it.

"Hello."

"Hello, is Miss Babcock there?"

"She is unavailable at the moment. May I take a message?"

"Just tell her to call us back ASAP so that she can provide an alternate form of payment for Mr. Brightmore's treatments. We have checked the numbers again and again, and the transaction has been declined."

"This is Mr. Brightmore speaking, so may I ask exactly how my expenses have or I guess in this case would have been paid?"

"What do you mean? I just said Miss Babcock's account…."

"Yes, yes I understand that, but was the cost split? I would expect that my employer, Maxwell Sheffield would have covered a least a portion of the expenses."

"Let me just double check here…nope…C.C. Babcock is the only one listed to provide payment. Would you please tell her to call me immediately?"

"Hello? Sir, are you still there?"

But the line was silent as Niles hung up the phone after finding out this new information. He knew that C.C. had taken on a small portion of his medical bills but was completely unaware that she had taken on the entire cost.

His emotions were flying off the handle now as he had processed so many life-altering events in the course of the day. He was grateful to have the love of this beautiful woman sleeping next to him, although, now that he realized the extent of what she had taken on for him, a huge ball of guilt ate at the pit of his stomach as he thought about what she had done for him over the last 6 months.

Feeling the sudden urge to leave, he slowly crawled out of bed, desperate not to wake her. He put on some sweatpants and a t-shirt along with some sneakers before walking into the living room. There he started pacing around the room, unsure of what to do next. On the one hand, he felt this unbearable guilt that she had been so good to him at a time where he really didn't believe he deserved it. On the other hand, he knew that she was going through a great deal and she certainly shouldn't have to go through it alone. He continued to think of what he should do for a while longer before grabbing a pen and scribbling a note for her. His handwriting was shaky as he transcribed his thoughts:

_C.C._

_I don't even know where to begin with this. I just needed to get out for a while. The hospital called and asked for you. They were looking for you to provide them with an alternate form of payment for MY medical expenses. I wish you would have told me that you planned on paying for everything yourself so that I could have stopped you. I don't deserve half of what you have given me and I don't expect that I'll ever be able to provide you with near as much as you have provided me. Don't worry about paying for me. Whatever money you have, put it towards your brother's treatment. I really do pray he pulls through. My expenses can be covered with whatever little savings I have and Mr. Sheffield can pay the difference. You have done more than enough for me. I just wish I could do the same for you. I'm sorry for all the pain and the burden I have been to you over the years. I guess it was the only way to show how much I actually do care. I guess I knew I just couldn't measure up. _

_Niles_

He finished the letter and placed it on the table where he was sure she would find it in the morning. He had a hard time explaining to himself why he felt the need to leave her at this very moment. He could justify it with the fact that she did not tell him about the phone call and wasn't initially honest with him up front. But, that wasn't what was eating at his core this very second.

Any guilt that he felt over making himself entertained at her expense was creeping to the surface as he thought about the sacrifices and accommodations she had made for him over these last few months. He was even starting to feel horrible at the fact that he had questioned her motivation for so many months.

Now, her closest family member was terminally ill. Surely, he had known about the illness months ago, for usually bone marrow transplants are considered only after other types of treatment fail to have an effect. _C.C. should have been there, supporting her brother through his illness, not helping me. _

With this thought in mind, he slowly walked out of her apartment door, headed down the elevator and out of the building. He walked the streets for several blocks before hailing a cab. He realized as he stepped into the vehicle, that he had no destination in mind.

He said the first address that popped into his mind.

The cab driver drove him there, somewhat erratically, before Niles paid and tipped the man. Niles turned and faced the door of the house, before briskly walking toward it. When he was in front of the door, however, he hesitated about what to do next.

Slowly, he lifted up his hand and rang the bell. He waited for several minutes before the door was open and there appeared Fran, dressed in a silky negligee, which was covered up mostly by a fluffy robe she had on over it.

"Niles?"

She knew by the sorrow and solemn expression in his retinas that something was definitely _not _right.


	12. Every Step of the Way

_**Hello hello! I'm back! I guess I'll say I took a long hiatus. Life and alternate forms of social media got in the way but I have every intention of finishing my stories! Anyways, I just want to individually thank Vee22, Lucky Starz, bogiedevil, avagrace2888, ladybrin, the-reverie, rx9872, ElectraE, and cajunghost for reviewing as well as all those who messaged me asking to continue the story. I am so glad everyone is enjoying it. I actually know where I am going to go with this one now, I think.**_

Chapter 12 – Every Step of the Way

The look on his face was so somber that she was actually speechless as she beckoned him to come inside. The desperation in his eyes was far worse than she had seen him or anyone, for that matter, posses as the two of them walked over to sit on the living room couch.

They sat in silence for a few minutes while Fran assessed the situation. Normally, she was a pro at handling emotional issues but the extreme sadness captured in his irises revealed to her that this was not your average case of the blues.

Similar to C.C. at the restaurant, Niles possessed the similar zombie like appearance as he stared on the cream colored walls of the Sheffield Mansion. After several minutes of silence and a few trickling tears later, Fran decided to try and fix whatever problem Niles was facing.

"Niles, talk to me, honey! What's going on?"

More tears trickled down his face. It broke Fran's heart to see her best friend so distraught and her thoughts went to Babcock. Her normal response to a relationship issue would have been to stick with the girls, but she knew in her heart that Niles was a wonderful and caring person and she couldn't help but feel some resentment toward C.C.

"Fran, I feel awful! I don't know what I'm going to do!"

He wiped away the few tears that fell down his cheeks with a handkerchief before Fran pressed for more information.

"Niles, honey, what's wrong? You look as if someone's died!"

Niles coughed small unhappy bursts of air at the strange choice of words.

"You're not far off, Fran."

"Niles, honey? What do you mean? Is it Miss Babcock, is she alright?"

"No, she's not alright. She's terrible!"

"Niles…"

Fran was becoming more worried as his tone became desperate.

"You'd be too if your brother had cancer!"

"Oh sweetie! She must be a mess! She has been through so much in the last 2 years!"

"I feel terrible Fran. After all she's given me."

"Sweetie, why do _you_ feel bad?"

"Oh Fran, she has done so much for me. Taking care of me after the accident, paying for my medical expenses. I didn't realize she was paying for my health bills too. I feel so terrible for all the mean things I've done to her over the years….and to think, I questioned her motives for taking care of me."

"Niles, you can't feel guilty about all of that. We all questioned Miss Babcock's thinking process after taking you in. After all, the mean and hurtful things you said to her were always returned. Miss Babcock has always been a seemingly cold- hearted person. Any one of us would have questioned her motivation."

"But Fran, I have been such a burden for so long. She has provided me with so much. How am I ever going to repay her?"

"Sweetie, she loves you! That's what people that love each other, do! And they don't expect anything in return."

"But Fran, listen to me. C.C. wasn't going to tell me about my expenses. I knew something was off with her a few nights ago when she received a phone call. She blew me off and said it was nothing but I know her and I knew she wasn't telling me something. Then, the phone rang tonight and it was the hospital asking for the money. I've caused financial hardship for C.C. long enough."

Without saying anything, Fran did something completely unexpected and slapped him across the face.

"What the hell was that for?"

"You men and your damn pride! Do you think she gives a rat's ass about money right now?"

"Well we are talking about Miss Babcock…."

"Niles! I'm serious!", she couldn't help but giggle and show slight surprise at his ability to somehow make a crack about Miss Babcock even in the most serious of situations.

"Seriously, the woman is a mess and as greedy as she appears to be, I honestly don't think money is the most important thing on her mind right now. I mean, think about it. The woman stayed in a mental institution, the love of her life, yes I can tell she loves you, is almost killed in some strange accidental fire and now her brother has cancer."

"Exactly Fran, how am I going to fix this?"

"Niles! You're not God! I know you want to protect her and give her everything and fix all of it. Being that you are a man, I understand the whole need to feel like the breadwinner; the protector and you feel obligated to pay her back for any financial stress that you have put on her over the last year. I know that is what you want for her right now and in your eyes it may appear like the best thing since your conscience will be clear and all. But honestly, Niles that is _not_ what she _needs_ right now! She needs you and your support through this time in her life. Be there for her like she was for you these last 12 months, because what you have given her and continue to give her is more valuable than any sum of money you provide for her. You can't put a price on love, Niles, do you hear me?"

He took in the meaning of her words for several minutes, digesting each and every syllable as he sat there staring at the staircase of the immaculate house.

"Fran, I just want to be the best man that I can be for her, provide her with everything she needs."

"Well, what she _needs _right now, is you!"

He sat there, taking in her words once more, before slowly standing up off the couch. Fran copied his actions and followed him as he briskly walked to the door. He turned toward her and gave her a hug before speaking.

"Fran?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Thank you."

"Honey, I'm always here for you. Now be there for C.C."

With that said, he walked out the door and hailed a cab back to C.C. Babcock's penthouse.

….

C.C. tossed and turned as the recent news of her brother's illness lurked in the back of her mind throughout the night. After looking at the bright red numbers on her alarm clock, she realized it was after 1:00 am and she still hadn't managed to fall asleep completely. She slowly turned and was unhappy to see that the spot, where Niles slept next to her, was empty.

With slight urgency, she began to pace around the apartment, looking for him. After searching in every room, she came across the letter he'd left her on the dining room table.

Slowly, she picked it up and took in each and every word transcribed on the scrap of legal paper. The melancholy feeling that loomed within her very being turned to complete numbness as she sat down at the table, unsure of how to take in this new development in her train-wreck of a life.

One small tear formed as her sparkling blue eyes filled up with wetness. She squinted her eyes, pushing the tear down her cheek and onto the scribbled letter he'd written her just hours before.

She moved over to her couch and switched on her television hoping to take her mind off of her real life for just a little while.

It seemed as if every movie on television was on to remind her of her life, for anything she began to watch was either a love story or about a character with a terminal illness. For 10 minutes, she sat there, flipping through channels before giving up her search and switching off the power.

She sat with Niles' letter in her hand. She had a hard time glancing at it and if it wasn't for the fact that she could feel the thin rough notebook paper in her soft graceful hands, she could almost imagine that it didn't exist.

Nothing ever seemed to go right in her life and for the first time in a long time she felt sorry for herself once again. Her self-pity continued to trouble her and she finally decided to deal with it in the only way she knew how.

She stood up and headed over to the bar in her penthouse. She pulled out a glass and poured herself a scotch. She winced as the scotch burned down her throat but she quickly poured herself another. By the 4th glass, she could no longer feel the burn of the fluid as she poured yet another glass down her gullet. Pouring herself a final glass she walked over and sat back down on the couch, putting the glass on the coffee table.

Her extreme misery turned to anger as the amount of alcohol she consumed threw her well over the edge of a carefree buzz. She swore to herself and cursed Niles named before the depressant effects of alcohol thoroughly kicked in and she fell asleep on the couch.

Within minutes, Niles, burst through the door and immediately saw her asleep on the couch. He had hoped he would get there in time to hide the letter and climb into the empty spot in bed without her realizing his absence.

But as he saw the open bottle of scotch and the half empty glass on her coffee table, he knew his efforts to rush home were in vain. Worried she might have consumed too much too soon, he checked her vitals to make sure everything was all right. Realizing she was just in a deep sleep, he picked her up off the couch and brought her to bed before softly placing her on the mattress and pulling the comforter over top of her.

He quickly grabbed an aspirin and a glass of water and put them on the bedside table. He capped the bottle of scotch and gathered the half empty cup on the coffee table. Before disposing of the remaining liquid and placing the glass on the counter, he noticed the letter he'd written earlier, on the floor.

As much as he was hoping by some fluke that she had not yet seen it, he knew now, however, that she most certainly, had.

He picked it up off the floor and began to crumple it up before stopping himself. Instead, he smoothed it out and put it on the table where it had been originally.

With as much alcohol as she had consumed tonight, he figured, she may not remember it in the morning. But even if that were the case, he decided that the issues within the letter were issues that they needed to work out as a couple.

If they were to be successful as couple in the future, they needed to be honest with one another about everything going on in their lives.

As guilty and obligated as he felt about finances just hours earlier, he knew now that his reason for leaving was beyond just that.

Couples don't last on physical chemistry alone. In some strange way, this letter now served as a representation of what Niles and C.C.'s relationship lacked from the very beginning…communication.

For so long, they had been afraid to voice their true feelings. The vulnerability they both felt when they were around each other was something that was no doubt, bottled up inside them. Both of them were guilty of lack of disclosure.

They had experienced so much together over the last year. Their relationship had taken leaps from what it had been a year earlier and C.C. had no doubt seen him at his worst. But as much as they had worked through, there were still issues that needed to be dealt with if they were going to last.

Niles wanted them to last and he could safely say that he knew she felt the same way.

Right now, C.C. needed him just as he needed her those months earlier through his recovery process.

With this thought in mind, he slipped off his sweatpants and got under the covers, filling the empty spot next to her. He pulled her close to him and securely fastened his arms around her waist.

He planted soft kiss in the crook of her neck as she slept soundly next to him.

Slowly he opened his mouth and whispered to her through the darkness of her master bedroom.

"I love you, Chastity Claire Babcock and I'm not going anywhere. Sweet dreams my love and I'll be with you every step of the way."

With that said, he snuggled close to her and fell asleep just minutes later, sleeping soundly with her in his arms for the rest of the night.


	13. Just Be Honest

_**Hello hello everyone! I'm please that so many of you are still interested in this story. Shout outs to Longaway, cajunghost, Searider Falcon, LaurenLaneLover, rx9872, Lucky Starz, and ElectraE for reviewing chapter 12. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**_

Chapter 13 – Just Be Honest

The sun crept in through the windows and bounced of the blonde locks of C.C. Babcock and Niles Brightmore mid-Saturday morning. C.C. awoke from the light and squinted as the brightness hurt her eyes. She put her pillow over her eyes and groaned before realizing that a set of strong arms was wrapped securely around her waist.

Content, she closed her eyes once again until the events from the previous night flooded back into her mind. Suddenly, she remembered exactly why it was she felt as if an elephant had walked on her head and someone glued her tongue to the roof of her mouth.

Taking the pillow from her eyes, she hit Niles repeatedly while rattling off.

"Where in the hell did you go last night? And what was the meaning of that note. Do you have any idea what going on in my mind? What the hell were you thinking?"

Niles, completely not expecting the attack, shielded himself from the blows and pleaded with her to stop.

"Please, C.C. let me explain."

She relented her attack and put the pillow down. The severity of her hangover from the previous night was starting to take effect as her head throbbed and her mouth felt very dry.

She groaned.

"You're the reason I feel as if my head's about to explode and my mouth is full of cotton swabs."

Normally this would be ammunition for an insult, but given that she was in an extremely fragile state coupled with the fact that just a moment ago he was being attacked by her, caused him to reconsider.

Instead, he addressed the situation seriously.

"There's an aspirin and water on the bedside table."

She turned toward the table, grabbed the capsule, put it in her mouth and washed it down with a swig of water.

The two of them sat against the headboard of the bed as Niles tried to explain himself.

"C.C. I'm so sorry I left last night. Everything happened so fast, it was a lot to take in for both us."

He paused for a minute to gauge her reaction.

"I'm listening, Butler Boy."

He chuckled slightly, glad that she was willing to hear him out before continuing.

"Yesterday was so awful, finding out the news about your brother so soon after everything had happened. I wanted to do all I could to fix it for you. Then, when you were asleep, the hospital called asking for payment for my medical bills and I just felt like I was more of a burden on your shoulders….

"Niles…"

"Let me finish. I'm not sure why I decided to leave all the sudden. At the time it seemed like the best thing to do. So I walked out the door and walked the streets a little before hailing a cab. As I stepped into the cab, I realized, I didn't really know where I was going so I just gave them the first address that popped into my head. I arrived at the mansion and talked to Fran a little bit and she put things in perspective for me.

"God bless that crazy Nanny," C.C. said with a smile before Niles continued.

"So I came back here and then I saw what my stupidity had done. You were passed out on the couch and I knew at this point that you had read the note I left on the table. I thought a great deal about some of the issues I addressed in the note…"

"Niles, honestly, if it's about the bills, don't worry about it. I can have the funds transferred from my personal account."

"It's not that, C.C. I just realize that we need to be honest with each other about _everything_. I just wish that you would have told me about bills sooner."

"You're right, but honestly, I didn't want to put that on your mind on your mind when you were in the process of recovering."

"Well, in the future, let's spare the protective shield and be honest with each other about whatever it is that is troubling us."

C.C. nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck before agreeing with him.

He pulled her close to him and the two of them sat like that for several minutes. Niles took in the smell of her hair, a smell that he planned on cherishing forever.

He planted a kiss on her head before the two of them broke apart and stood up from the bed to get dressed.

She was about to head to the bathroom, when her trip was interrupted by the telephone ringing.

Niles immediately went to pick it up.

"Hello."

"Hi Niles, it's Noel. Could you put C.C. on the phone please?"

"Of course."

C.C. approached the phone before Niles handed it to her.

"Hi, Noel. How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling fine", but the tone of his voice gave away how he was really feeling.

It pained C.C. to hear her brother in what could clearly be described as agony. Just by hearing his voice, she could tell that his illness was taking on toll on his energy level. As much as she hated the fact that she knew he wasn't well, she gave no indication as she continued to speak with him.

"I'm glad to hear it given the circumstances. I'll be booking a flight for Monday. If there is anything I can do, I would like to know sooner rather than later."

"C.C. I need to ask you a favor. I wouldn't do this if I didn't feel like it was the only option."

"Anything."

"Could you please take care of Annabelle for a while? My wife and I are going to be in and out of medical offices and she really needs support and attention that we just won't be able to give her right now."

C.C. sighed as she thought spending her time with her niece. She truly loved her very much, but she was never very good with kids and the thought of having 8- year-old in her penthouse apartment scared the living daylights out of her.

"For how long?"

"About a month."

"I can do that."

"C.C. I know you're not the warm and fuzzy type and that kids aren't exactly your forte but honestly I trust you the most out of anyone in our family to provide for my daughter what I won't be able to give her for a while."

They sat in silence on the line for several seconds before C.C. finally gathered up the strength to answer him.

"I'll take care of her."

"Thank you, C.C. So I'll see you on Monday night?"

"Yes and I'm scheduled for the test the next day."

"Okay, well I'll see you soon."

"Bye, Noel."

She hung up the phone as the color drained from her porcelain face. It took all the will she could muster to hold back the tears that were certain to stain her face any minute now.

Niles could see the hurt in her eyes as he approached her and wrapped his arms around her in a loving embrace. She buried her head in his neck before the tears escaped from her eyes. He rubbed her back continuing to console her.

Here she was, the bravest, most headstrong woman he knew, a complete and utter mess before his eyes. He pulled her close and continued to hold onto her securely for several minutes before she lifted her head up and looked into his eyes.

Despite all of the hurt and pain she was feeling, her eyes still exhibited the strength and fire that he was used to.

The two of them broke apart briefly and walked over to the edge of her bed, where they sat down.

"Niles, I've already booked us two tickets for a flight to O'Hare International for Monday afternoon and I'll be going to the hospital the following morning to see if my bone marrow is a match. My brother wants my niece to stay with me for a month or so while him and his wife visit the doctor. You know I'm awful with children."

"Then I guess you'll need all the help you can get Babs. Somewhere buried in that stone cold tin chest of yours, you have a big heart. I know, I've seen it."

She flashed him a warm smile and the two of them managed to share a light-hearted chuckle together despite the seriousness of the situation.

"Niles, I think I'm staying home today."

"Babcock, I would say you earned that right."

He pulled her close to him and planted a loving kiss on her forehead. The two of them then moved back under the duvet once again. Niles wrapped his arms securely around her once again and the two of them fell asleep.

C.C. slept much more soundly for next few hours than she had in the entire year she'd been caring for Niles.

Somehow just the knowledge that Niles would be there for her during all of this made everything seem much more bearable.


End file.
